On 11th September, the nominations for the Barclaycard Mercury Prize will be announced with the winner decided on 30th October. This year’s list of contenders will feature 12 of the best British albums released in the past year. Any nominee lucky enough to follow in last year’s winners Alt-J’s footsteps can be certain of a significant sales boost and wider recognition, which can only be good for the future of the British music industry. Each Wednesday over the next three weeks Gigslutz will be looking back on some of 2013’s best releases to determine who we reckon will get the nod this time around. With the future in mind, this time we’re focussing on the new generation.
There’s been a bevy of new British groups giving us some of the year’s best music and it will the panel’s decision whether to stick with what they know or to stick their neck out and announce the arrival of the next great homegrown act. It’s been done before, like in 2006 when the Arctic Monkeys got their hands on the prize.
Top of the pile of breakthrough acts this year has to be Disclosure with their debut Settle. The Lawrence brothers along with a host of collaborators including Jessie Ware and Sam Smith have breathed new life into British dance with their retro take on the genre in 2013. Dance music has been underrepresented in recent years but this album looks a dead cert to be named to the shortlist and is definitely worth a punt to take the top prize.
The critically acclaimed Savages are the next favourites to receive a spot. Immaculate in all-black, this lot have half the job done before even striking a note, resembling late ‘70s post-punk acts like Siouxsie and the Banshees and Joy Division. Their cathartic Silence Yourself LP made sure you remembered more than just their look with a sequence of top tunes positively searing themselves onto your brain.
Birmingham –born Laura Mvula announced herself with the ubiquitous single Green Garden as the brightest light in British soul music for many a year with her debut album Sing to the Moon delivering on that song’s early promise and then some. Her place on the shortlist could be all but locked up.
Folk outfit Daughter are tipped in some corners to make the list, however critics’ were divided when their moody debut collection If You Leave dropped back in May. The folk genre has traditionally not been well-served by the prize so they may well earn themselves a nomination but not as serious contenders.
It’s a similar situation that Birmingham indie rockers Peace find themselves in. They’re still the best thing to come out of Birmingham’s B-Town scene however first full-length effort In Love failed to live up to the hype and they look likely to fall just short of the mark just as they did when named to the BBC Sound of 2013 poll’s shortlist.
On the subject of hype, has there ever been a greater critical backlash than that Tom Odell has received? Recipient of the Critics’ Choice Award at the BRITs in December 2012, Odell’s debut Long Way Down received nothing short of a kicking on its release only six months later, including a rather infamous 0/10 verdict from the NME. Still, it sold well and the awards show traditionally requires someone to perform a soporific number solo at the piano so he might just get the call.
Which new British acts do you think deserve to make the cut?
@ERHomer
