Wednesday, July 21, 2004
Cream of the Pop?
It's that time of year again, i.e. slow moving in terms of record sales, and so the Mercury Music Prize shortlist has been announced. It's not quite as bad as last year's list, but then, the only way it could really have been worse would have been if they'd announced it was a two horse race between Atomic Kitten and the Stereophonics. We even like a couple of the albums on the list this year, but it's still a bit on the rubbish side of the fence really. Once again the world of pop is underrepresented, but this is about as surprising as finding your feet in your socks. Jamelia seems to be included to represent the genre, which is a shame as other than Thank You she's utterly dull and pointless. We're quite glad to see Joss Stone in the list on the other hand, as we really want her to do well. Not because of any respect for her music or for her Amazing VoiceTM or anything like that, but because we think she's got absolutely beautiful eyes and we're easily swayed by stuff like that. The Mercury is, of course, designed to promote bands that might not get exposure otherwise so you may well be thinking that by wanting pop acts to be included we're ignoring that aspect of it and you'd be quite right to think that, but we don't see why we should include that factor in our deliberations when the judges themselves clearly don't bother their arses about it as the inclusion of such obscure, struggling bands such as Keane, Franz Ferdinand, Belle and Sebastian and The Streets proves. If you fancy a flutter, our tip is Keane and if you win any money as a result of this, we want ten percent. Cheers.
Getting it slightly more right, on the other hand, is Popjustice.Com who have announced the shortlist for their £20 Music Prize, although even this is somewhat flawed; most notably with the lack of nomination for Phixx and their really rather fab debut Hold On Me. While they were, admittedly, rather shonky as a band and could only follow up this bit of genius with nothing but disappointment and desperation. It was a modern-retro slice of electro pop majesty and doesn't deserve to be forgotten and swept under the carpet when stuff like Shaznay's single gets included. Fair enough, her tune is a pleasant enough track but one of the best pop songs of the last 12 months? It's not even the best pop song of the last 12 minutes. Also included are the dull 60's wannabe's McFly who, since we saw them doing an acoustic performance on Top of the Pops Saturday, we've decided are a cancer on the music industry and must be cut out as soon as possible. If a pop band performs unplugged then we should see them dancing and mouthing to silence, nothing else. Looking earnest isn't in the job description. Rachel Stevens has another number 2 to her name now, but this one is slightly more flattering as she has two entries in the shortlist, one for Sweet Dreams... and one for Some Girls, while the expected Girls Aloud, Busted and Sugababes triptych makes it's appearance. Token indie entry is Keane, who should be disqualified swiftly for having rubbish haircuts, and once again Jamelia shows up, leading us to wonder just why anyone cares about her lightly melodic and inoffensive music. If you fancy a flutter on this then we reckon McFly is the way to go, even though we do detest it with a passion we normally reserve for the truly evil in society - Nickelback fans.
Getting it slightly more right, on the other hand, is Popjustice.Com who have announced the shortlist for their £20 Music Prize, although even this is somewhat flawed; most notably with the lack of nomination for Phixx and their really rather fab debut Hold On Me. While they were, admittedly, rather shonky as a band and could only follow up this bit of genius with nothing but disappointment and desperation. It was a modern-retro slice of electro pop majesty and doesn't deserve to be forgotten and swept under the carpet when stuff like Shaznay's single gets included. Fair enough, her tune is a pleasant enough track but one of the best pop songs of the last 12 months? It's not even the best pop song of the last 12 minutes. Also included are the dull 60's wannabe's McFly who, since we saw them doing an acoustic performance on Top of the Pops Saturday, we've decided are a cancer on the music industry and must be cut out as soon as possible. If a pop band performs unplugged then we should see them dancing and mouthing to silence, nothing else. Looking earnest isn't in the job description. Rachel Stevens has another number 2 to her name now, but this one is slightly more flattering as she has two entries in the shortlist, one for Sweet Dreams... and one for Some Girls, while the expected Girls Aloud, Busted and Sugababes triptych makes it's appearance. Token indie entry is Keane, who should be disqualified swiftly for having rubbish haircuts, and once again Jamelia shows up, leading us to wonder just why anyone cares about her lightly melodic and inoffensive music. If you fancy a flutter on this then we reckon McFly is the way to go, even though we do detest it with a passion we normally reserve for the truly evil in society - Nickelback fans.
