I am utterly delighted that Elbow have won the Mercury Prize 2008 with their brilliant album ‘The Seldom Seen Kid’. Before this year I didn’t know much about the band and if I’d been asked to name one of their songs would only have thought of their hilarious spoons cover of Destiny Child’s ‘Independent Women’.
Originally when the nominations were announced I was dead set on Neon Neon to take the win. It is full of amazing electro pop, but there are a couple of tracks where they veer off such as ‘Trick For Treat’ and ‘Sweat Shop’, that let it down. On the other hand ‘The Seldom Seen Kid’ is just constant bliss. It’s epic and packed with emotion. The swirling strings of ‘One Day Like This’ turned me onto the album and I’ve been listening to it non stop for the last three months.
The tension in our house waiting for the winner was full on. I was desperate for Elbow while Gaypop wanted Estelle after Simon Armitage was unbelievably rude about her. But then the result came, and it was better than Will vs Gareth!
If you need to taste it before you swallow, try the snarling ‘Grounds For Divorce’ (which is worth the prize alone) or Richard Hawley duet ‘The Fix’.
p.s. am totally in love with Guy Garvey.
Uh Hur Her are Leisha Hailey and Camilla Grey. They’ve just released their debut album ‘Common Reaction’ and it includes the brilliant ‘This Is Not A Love Song.’ Sounding just like it could be a cut from Goldfrapp’s ‘Supernature’, it’s a slice of electro pop goodness. I’ve not heard the full album yet, but nothing else so far lives up to this. They’ve got a massive gay following thanks to Leisha’s role in The L Word (and as a former gf of K D Lang) so I hope this goes down well at Miss-Shapes.
