Mercury nominees: Amy Winehouse and Arctic Monkeys AND JAMIE-T!! (Released Today - Tuesday July 17, 2007)

(Tuesday July 17, 2007)

Well, it’s that time of year again, the, Mercury Awards shortlist is announced.

2007 Nationwide Mercury Prize.
(Announced at London's The Hospital venue on Tuesday.)

The Mercury Prize shortlist is as follows:

The Young Knives - Game (Up All Night)

Bat For Lashes - Fur and Gold

Jamie T - Panic Prevention

Klaxons - Myths Of The New Future

The View - Hats Off To The Buskers

Amy Winehouse - Back To Black

Basquiat Strings - Basquiat Strings With Seb Rochford

Dizzee Rascal - Maths + English

New Young Pony Club - Fantastic Playroom

Maps - We Can Create

Fionn Regan - End Of History

Arctic Monkeys - Favourite Worse Nightmare.

The 2007 awards see two second albums shortlisted, and both are from artists who have already achieved icon status, there’s the artist who everyone wants to work with, Amy Winehouse and The Arctic Monkeys, Amy’s storming breakthrough album, “Back To Black” and, “Favourite Worse Nightmare” seeing The Arctic Monkeys maintain the previously shown fine form as they and their music continues to mature very nicely indeed.

These have both already emerged as favourites with bookmakers William Hill offering 4/1 odds that either act walk away with the top prize.

As par for the course, there’s some eclectic choices, “Basquiat Strings” being one of them. But the Mercury Awards are famous for immensely boosting album sales, so I feel this is ultimately a good thing, and for a change I more-or-less agree with their chosen few.

I feel it something of a minor personal victory that JamieT is in the shortlist, regular readers will know that I’ve championed Jamie-T since the very beginning, way back from the days of his acoustic sets and Betty’s Selfish Sons Ep etc. And feel that especially due to his disappointing chart positions he is due to some long overdue attention from the mass-media and of course from the discerning, music-buying public. His set at the Electric Proms last year was (for me) an excellent performance, especially as he was one of the lesser known acts on the bill, and played to (at the start) an audience who looked like it just couldn’t be bothered.