Saturday, October 17, 2015

Mercury rising, interest falling

Call it blind prejudice and ignorance (go ahead - it is, largely), but this year's Mercury Prize shortlist resulted in a great big "MEH" in these quarters. While I should probably listen to a bit of SOAK and Ghostpoet, and Aphex Twin is of course a welcome inclusion, I've heard enough of Jamie XX's much lauded album to know that I don't get what all the excitement's about and am sceptical about the quality of the field if Gaz Coombes, someone who's been a yesterday's man for years, can be suddenly catapulted back into the limelight.

That scepticism hasn't been banished by what I've heard of Wolf Alice, and is only exacerbated by the presence of Florence Welch and Slaves on the shortlist. The latter are described as "loud, audacious garage-rock" by someone who needs a slap around the chops followed by a stern lesson in the meaning of the word "audacious".

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