Prize clowns
Klaxons wide-eyed at winning Mercury Prize
As ever, TV coverage of the Mercury Prize was sapped by a weak live sound, with barely any of those performing to the assembled, seated music business types sounding as good as they ought. The Young Knives, the Klaxons, New Young Pony Club and Maps had a good old bash, but in all cases, the vocals were thin and underpowered - either that, or none of them can sing, and the sound quality was such that it could not be disguised. Even Natasha Khan was a bit disappointing. Perhaps you had to be there (ie. pissed on free booze). Dizzee Rascal fared better, but then a lot of his music was on tape and had instant oomph.
I had a horrible feeling all the way through that Amy Winehouse would win - not that she's undeserving, just that she's turned into a freak show and judgement has been clouded with either sympathy or ambulance-chasing glee - so I was delighted it was the Klaxons. Not as delighted as the Klaxons. Their clearly refreshed antics were a humorous antidote to the monosyllabic mumbling that had passed for gratitude up to that point. They put on a great show, both on stage and up on the balcony with an overwhelmed Jo Whiley, who was desperate not to lose her carefully-maintained cool: tears streaming down their faces, a total mess, their pupils dilated like saucers due to nothing more nefarious that pure youthful adrenaline, I feel sure. Either that or they were on coke and/or ecstasy, which I believe are very popular among the youth.
They're not particularly fashionable, they've long since stopped being The Latest Thing, and they are lumpy-looking young men, not exotic young women, which made them a bookies' non-favourite. The television show itself was, as usual, long and drawn out, with poor Jools Holland defeated by the Autocue, and very little for the pundits to actually add while the stage was re-set. It's a prize. It's for the best album. Some judges decide this. They sometimes make a late decision. They once gave it to M People. Another time they gave it to Talvin Singh. The judges, like the classical/folk artist, cannot win. If they give it to the most popular, or bestselling act, like last year, they are accused of kowtowing to the accounts dept. If they give it to an unknown, they are accused of being out of touch, or tokenistic. I salute them this year. Myths Of The Near Future is one of the few albums of 2007 that isn't propped up by one or two memorable singles; it's inventive and catchy and various and smart all the wall through, and doesn't pall through repeated listens. In Golden Skans and Not Over Yet it boasts two of the year's best singles, and yet they are only among the stand-out tracks. Maps, on the other hand, are very interesting, and have at least two storming tracks, but it's not the album of the year. Nor is Jamie T's Panic Prevention which had flashes of genius and some dull bits. Likewise New Young Pony Club, who also show promise, but have yet to produce a Great Album, to my ears.
By the way, I salute Tahita Bulmer, lead singer with New Young Pony Club, who made this unprecedented sore-loser comment: "The Klaxons already have loads of press. They should have given it to someone smaller who needed a boost." She's missed the whole point of the event, but God bless her anyway.
posted by Andrew Collins @ 1:49 PM
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16 Comments:
Hoorah! As a judge, I am glad to have nice boys like your good self and Alexis Petridis saying nice things.
Although I OBVIOUSLY voted for Chas and Dave's latest affair, with Marillion coming a close second.
surprised you haven't mentioned the Maps / Northampton connection...
I only found out that Maps bloke is from Northampton last night! (And I only found out Alan Carr was from there by reading Word.) And I only found out that Jude was a judge a few moments ago when I read it here.
I love The Klaxons album above all others this year so I am happy to. Although I do love Amy Winehouse to, and I regret her life seems to have overtaken her music as being more important by our rampant press.
I noticed they were referred throughout as simply Klaxons. Is the 'The' superfluous then ?
A clear message to Amy Winehouse: we like you, but sort yourself out love. Glad she didn't win. Now she might try harder and stop pissing it all up the wall.
I'm glad Klaxons won, especially as their main rivals were the over-rated Bat For Lashes, the AWFUL Jamie T, and Winehouse.
It's a very good album, not perfect and certainly not rave, new, nu or otherwise. Klaxons are an interesting young band, that are full of bright ideas, fun and wit. They've managed to survive being NMEs favourites long after the backlash should've kicked in. And that's because, unlike so many, they actually deserve the success they have achieved so quickly. The kids still like them.
And unlike so many other bands around i think they may have a second album in them!
I'm glad Klaxons won too as I had money on them. I backed them and other big priced outsiders The Young Knives (journos seem to love them) and Basquiat with Strings (surely one year they will reward the token classical entry)
Great to see '80's unfunnyman'Ade Edmondson pissed up interupting everyone and that McCormick clown who wrote that 'people are trying to kill me' song. Did no one ever give him an award for his poignant ode to tube bombing??
re: MAPS
As you would 'ave guessed "the Chron" have been going on about him.
He may even knock you off the "local boy done good" perch ;-)
Mind he's from Earls Barton which is nearer to Wellingborough anyway. So we can lump him in with Thom Yorke and Peter Murphy as not really from Northampton.
I don't know about anyone else, but I thought Amy W's performance, in the teeth of all the hysteria about her, was magnificent.
Fur and Gold was my favourite album of last year in December last year and that's not changed. Klaxons were definitely in my list of acts I'd rather see win but I was pretty shocked to see it win.
I'm afraid I found the Klaxons' self-congratulatory jubilance a little unseemly. Surely that sort of loutish celebration should be reserved for Association Football teams?
There was a definite overstating of the significance of the award, and the significance of everybody nominated for it.
The Klaxons are the new M-People.
Klaxons the new M People! Which one's Shovel?
Nobby, I would concede that we mustn't overstate the importance of the Prize culturally, but it really does sell extrac records for those nominated, especially the jazz/classical/folk artists, so we shouldn't dismiss it out of hand.
The Klaxons are a lot more interesting than M People, which was a case, I'd argue, of the jury feeling missionary guilt for having given the first prize to a load of white boys, and wanted to redress the ethnic balance - without upsetting the horses, of course.
On a less flippant note than my previous post, only a churl would suggest that the Klaxons haven't written some good pop music, and if there's one thing I can't stand, it's a churl. Well, there are other things, but churls are quite high on the list.
What I would take issue with is the contention that, across the length of an album, the Klaxons' music is capable of sustaining repeated listens. For me, the music offers itself up a little too readily. Maybe that is just the nature of pop, and I should be listening to Philip Glass symphonies, but I take more satisfaction from album that don't let me 'get' them completely on the first listen. Of the stuff I've heard from this years shortlist, I think only Maps met that criteria – although I haven't heard Basquiat Strings.
Maybe the Klaxons' success is indicative of the decline in significance of the album as a medium. I don't know – unlike the Klaxons, I am not from the future. For example, my shirt is made of cotton, not sheet metal. This just an idea.
Five-Centres said...
A clear message to Amy Winehouse: we like you, but sort yourself out love. Glad she didn't win. Now she might try harder and stop pissing it all up the wall.
Is that anatomically possible?
Excellent piece by Jude on the guardian site about being a judge. Recommended.
Just relistened to Golden Skans and Atlantic to Interzone to try and work out what I'm meant to be missing. It was a very uninspiring handful of minutes.
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