Пятница 23 Июл 2010, 11:22

Its that time of the year when the Mercury Music Prize nominations are announced. I could easily criticise the shortlist - for a start where is the excellent There is Love in You by Four Tet? But I can't be too critical of a bunch of LPs I've never heard, so today I've been ploughing through as many as possible…Checked out Foals, Paul Weller, Villagers, I Am Kloot, and Biffy Clyro this morning without too much track skipping; Mumford and Sons, Laura Marling and The XX so far this afternoon. Nothing has really stood out as being particularly fresh and inspiring in my opinion - there are nice moments on the Mumford and Laura Marling LPs (although these are both in a similar vein so it was a bit much back to back) and I can see the appeal of Foals…The XX are favourites to scoop the prizee and I do really like some of the tunes (e.g. Fantasy) but I'm still not 100% convinced they deserve all the plaudits they are getting…Will add to this post once I've listened to Dizzee Rascal, Corinne Bailey Rae, Wild Beasts and the Kit Downes Trio (not available on Spotify so this could be an issue, but as the token jazz album this is likely to be my favourite of the bunch!)