‘Nationwide Mercury Prize 2004 Album of the Year’ (EMI) Released 16/08/04

Well, The Mercury Music Prize, the music industry’s ‘most prestigious award’ has been and gone and in its wake it has left us with this, a compilation full of tasters of ‘the best’ albums of 2004.

It is jam-packed full of this years hits, representing particular artists albums. So we have the likes of Franz Ferdinand (this years winners), Joss Stone, Basement Jaxx, The Zutons and The Streets present to name but a few.

Radio friendly tracks like ‘Take Me Out’, ‘Superstar’, ‘Fit But You Know It’ and ‘Super Duper’ make up the core of this album but unfortunately the range of material is not that broad. The odd British hip hop artist, Ty, is thrown in for good measure as is the token old bloke, Robert Wyatt. However, the middle of the road artists reign supreme with Belle & Sebastian, Keane and Snow Patrol holding court. It seems that the one factor to guarantee you a place in the final competition is whether or not you are over-played on Radio 1, not a factor that assures artistic integrity.

The £20,000 prize giving ceremony is intended to represent a snap shot of British music over the year, and organisers obviously painstakingly choose each years contenders. However as other music awards such the Brits and the MOBO’s come under scrutiny for reasons of prejudice and the lack of British artists present The Mercury Music prize has come to represent much more then a bit of cash. In a way it is a life line for credible artists and songwriters to receive recognition for all their hard work so when performers like Jamelia are up there with musicians like Basement Jaxx the credibility status of these awards goes right down the pan in the minds of artists and music lovers alike.

Also featuring on the album is last year’s winner Dizzee Rascal who over the past year has made the changeover into main stream, the charts and inevitably the big money quite successfully. Luckily for them 2004 winners Franz Ferdinand will not suffer from this problem of selling their ass being already firmly established in the psyche of the buying public.