Features Top 5… Mercury Snubs

If there’s one thing about the Mercury Music Prize that can’t be denied, it’s that sometimes the wrong album wins. For our money (or mine at least - Ed) Elbow was a bloody good choice last night, but no doubt a nation of Radiohead fans, or a select bunch of Burial converts would disagree; such is the way of music.

Time, though, puts everything into perspective. Here’s a run down of the 5 of the most surprising albums to be nominated, but not win the prestigious gong.

1997: Radiohead - OK Computer
Quite possibly the biggest ‘D’oh’ moment in the history of the award, Radiohead’s seminal album is overlooked in favour of Roni Size’s ‘New Forms’. At the time it was not only a bolt from the blue, but held up as an example of how the award appreciated new artists who would go on to be superstars in the future. Er…
Elsewhere on that year’s list: The Spice Girls - Spice

1994: Blur - Parklife
While ‘OK Computer’ may be a more critically lauded album, ‘Parklife’ lost out to an even more confusing choice. Alongside Pulp’s ‘His’n’Hers’, the album which perhaps defined a generation better than any lost out to M People’s ‘Elegant Slumming’. You couldn’t make it up.
Elsewhere on that year’s list: Take That - Everything Changes

1998: Massive Attack - Mezzanine
The year of the Gomez! Let’s be honest, a decade ago DIY can even remember getting a bit excited about ‘Bring It On’, but as well as pipping the Massive Attack classic to the post it also beat Pulp’s ‘This Is Hardcore’ and Catatonia’s ‘International Velvet’. Looking back, we were probably all about the latter; oh, the crimes of youth.
Elsewhere on that year’s list: Robvbie Williams - Life Thru A Lens

2001: Gorillaz - Gorillaz
Now, don’t get us wrong losing out to PJ Harvey is no crime, especially when the company also includes Super Furry Animals, Radiohead and this year’s winners Elbow. What’s more surprising is the fact that they actually resigned from the shortlist, claiming winning would be ‘like carrying a dead albatross round your neck for eternity’. Since then, no Albarn related release has been entered for the award.
Elsewhere on that year’s list: A disappointing lack of a comedy pop album. This is a serious award, don’t you know?

1996: Mark Morrison - Return Of The Mack
Nah, just kidding….