Mercury 2009 mop up

It seems the old adage which states "Never keep a diary, as one day it will keep you" could have a close relation in blogs: never promise a whole series on the Mercury Prize, as one day it'll overshadow your every waking moment. So far, I've covered five of the 12 albums. At this rate I may as well turn my entire life over to reviews of Mercury albums and have done with it.

I have therefore resolved to cover 'all the rest' with the lightest of touches in this one supermega post. There is light at the end of the tunnel.

I'll cover the two albums I already know/own first:

Friendly Fires: Friendly Fires ★★★
Great, infectious, energetic tunes with a samba feel. Sails fairly close to mid-1980s funk at times. The stand-out track for me is Paris, closely followed by Jump In The Pool. Overall feeling is good dancey party music, something like a more sedate and funky younger brother of Simian Mobile Disco. Hit them up on Spotify or MySpace.

The Horrors: Primary Colours ★★★★
This has, at times, been my album of the day. Great wonky guitar noises, fantastic alientated production by Geoff Barrow (one of the reasons I love Dummy by Portishead). I'll admit to a degree of gothstalgia, but this is definitely their own sound. I wish they'd cut the acres of reverb out when playing live: as a friend commented "sounds like the Psychededlic Furs playing at the other end of the Channel Tunnel". Live sound and recorded sound are by definition different and should be treated as such (and that means you too, Kevin Sheilds!). Overall though, a keeper. Stand out track is without a doubt Sea Within A Sea. Listen on Spotify or MySpace.

Now for the albums I don't know, but which are available on Spotify.

Glasvegas: Glasvegas ★★ (with a provisional ★ held in abeyance)
I'm afraid I find James Allan's vocals irritating beyond belief. Having said that, the overall effect is not unpleasant, and I listened for far longer than I thought I might before skipping to the next track. There's a slight kinship in music, instrumentation and production with Primary Colours: echoey, grungey, retro inspired. I prefer the tracks which weren't released as singles, finding them less trite and annoying: probably my favourite from a brief listen was Lonesome Swan. Listen: Spotify; MySpace. Hope the ice cream van turns up soon.

Lisa Hannigan: Sea Sew
Nice downbeat poppy folk-style music: lovely sounding stuff. She's previously collaborated with Damien Rice and there's a degree of similarity between their styles. I would definitely put this on without complaint. Top track is probably the opener Ocean and a Rock, although Pistachio is a close second. Listen for yourself on Spotify or we7.

The remainder are not available on Spotify, so I've had to cobble a playlist together from last.fm, we7, MySpace and iTunes.

Speech Debelle: Speech Therapy ★★★
Poor Speech got a bum deal after winning the Mercury: roundly slated by the music press (who got caught out), album sold incredibly poorly and then parted company with her label. The music's got a nice jazzy swing. Her voice isn't the strongest, but it's pleasant and her rhymes bounce along well enough. Favourite track on first listen: Spinning; in which I detect some subtle organic breakbeats. Listen for yourself on we7. I'll be giving this a more in-depth listen.

La Roux: La Roux ★★★
I admit to a bit of a fondness for La Roux. Nice jumpy electro stuff. Elly's got a reasonable voice. There are some riffs that sound like they were forged in Sheffield circa 1982 (notably As If By Magic), but that's no bad thing. My pick: Bulletproof.

Led Bib: Sensible Shoes (TBC, but ★★★★ at least, I would guess)
Supposedly the token jazz act at the party, I liked the first 30 seconds of every song enough to buy the whole album. Full review to follow. Some really nice chunky funk riffs and some beautiful lilting melodies. Looking forward to getting my teeth into it.