Mercury Prize 2009

I've decided to publish a short series of reviews of the albums nominated for the 2009 Mercury Prize. I love the Mercurys (Mercuries?) for introducing me to stuff I'd otherwise not listen to; in particular I fell deeply in love with last year's winner: Elbow's majestic The Seldom Seen Kid. In the spirit of honest aural exploration I'm going to give all the albums a proper listen and share my thoughts with you.

I'll declare my prejudices up front: I don't particularly like Kasabian or Glasvegas, purely based on hearing their singles on the radio. I also have prior knowledge of the following albums: Friendly Fires eponymous outing and Primary Colours by The Horrors. I've had exposure to Florence and The Machine and La Roux purely as a result of being alive this year.

Of course, we all know by now that Speech Debelle's album won the prize. She's had some negative press since then; probably because everyone thought that Florence and The Machine would win. I'm trying hard not to let that influence my listening.

So then, my task: 12 albums, 12 reviews.

Florence and The Machine: Lungs
Kasabian: West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum
Speech Debelle: Speech Therapy
Friendly Fires: Friendly Fires
La Roux: La Roux
Bat for Lashes: Two Suns
The Horrors: Primary Colours
Glasvegas: Glasvegas
Led Bib: Sensible Shoes
Sweet Billy Pilgrim: Twice Born Men
The Invisible: The Invisible
Lisa Hannigan: Sea Sew

I'll post as I listen to them, not in the order listed above. All the reviews will be labelled mercury2009. I'll be using Spotify to do the listening where possible. True to my personal Spotify policy, if I like it that much, I'll buy it on CD or from 7digital.com; I figure that way the artists get a better chance of some money. I'll link to relevant pages for each artist and album so you can listen along.