Mercury Prize: Loyle Carner favourite, but Jockstrap and Lankum in the mix
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Former winners Young Fathers 4/1 in Mercury Prize odds
Jockstrap and Lankum are the biggest movers ahead of tonight’s Mercury Prize – the UK and Ireland’s most prestigious music award.
Irish folk group Lankum were 16/1 outsiders at the start of the week, but are now fourth favourites at 5/1, while Jockstrap have been cut from 7/1 to 4/1.
Hip-hop artist Loyle Carner remains the favourite, but has drifted slightly from 3/1 to 7/2, while dance act Fred again..and disco queen Jessie Ware are out to 8/1 and 14/1 respectively.
With the winner set to be announced at the Eventim Apollo in London, we’re casting an eye over all 12 acts and their Mercury Prize odds.
Loyle Carner (hugo)
The laid-back Londoner’s latest offering, a refreshingly honest work which covers identity, his mixed-race roots, struggles with ADHD and dyslexia, and fixing a difficult relationship with his absent father, was described by one Observer reviewer as a “masterpiece” and it’s hard to argue with that kind of praise.
John Agard’s celebrated poem Half Caste is the inspiration for the excellent Georgetown, birthplace of his paternal grandfather in Guyana, while the gospel-inspired Nobody Knows (Ladas Road) and the ballady A Lasting Place are also stand-out tracks from this national treasure.
Jockstrap (I Love You Jennifer B)
This debut album from electronic duo Taylor Skye and Black Country, New Road violinist Georgia Ellery was seventh in the Guardian’s top 10 albums of 2022 and starts with what seems to be conventional folk song Neon, but half a minute later charges off in different directions, setting the tone for a rollercoaster ride where the listener never knows what’s coming next.
Angst begins with a dreamy harp intro but ends unsettlingly as you’d expect from the title as Ellery compares anxiety with a difficult birth.
There’s more than a touch of the Walker Brothers in Lancaster Court, but the highlight is the six-minute genre-defying Concrete Over Water where Ellery’s voice is the perfect foil for Skye’s dizzying experiments. Hard to sum up in a hundred words, impossible to ignore.
Young Fathers (Heavy Heavy)
Four years of silence and the Scottish trio are back with a bang with the brilliant Heavy Heavy which hopes to repeat the success of their Mercury-winning debut album Dead from 2014.
Young Fathers are hard to categorise, but their infectious mixture of hip-hop and rock without guitars is a winning formula and one which hits the mark with some great tracks on their fourth album like the soaring Tell Somebody and I Saw which owes more than a debt of gratitude to Animal Collective.
It’s a chaotic, uplifting and energetic piece of work which may jar with their long-time fans, but joining PJ Harvey as the only two-time Mercury Prize winner would be fully deserved.
Lankum (False Lankum)
The fourth album of Dublin four-piece Lankum is an atmospheric piece that builds on their 2019 breakthrough The Livelong Day which won the RTE Choice Music Prize.
False Lankum is the first folk album to be nominated for the Mercury in 11 years, so these multi-instrumentalists must be doing something right.
A mixture of traditional Irish folk music and experimental sonic sounds that seem to derive from medieval dungeons, it would be a big upset if it landed the big one, but stranger things have happened.
Fred again.. (Actual Life 3 – January 1 – September 9 2022)
Prolific Fred Gibson has been shortlisted for the Mercury for his third album in 18 months, all of which follow the same titled format with different dates.
The 30-year-old songwriter and DJ, who made history in 2020 as the youngest musician to become producer of the year at the Brit Awards, continues to sample voice memos, Instagram posts and clips from other musical artists for his house music diary project.
Delilah (Pull me out of this), originally written about having a panic attack in a club, and Danielle (Smile on my Face), which samples 070 Shake’s ‘Nice to Have’, are the highlights of an album that seems to have emerged from the dark tunnel of Covid and grief which formed the core of the first two.
With just over 3⃣ weeks to go until the Awards Show for the 2023 Mercury Prize with @FreeNow_UK, get familiar with the albums on this year's Shortlist. ⚡️
Listen now: https://t.co/MH5yJCn3ZV #MercuryPrize pic.twitter.com/GVH5PzPdTO
— Mercury Prize (@MercuryPrize) August 14, 2023
Best of the rest
BRIT school graduate Olivia Dean is 8/1 for her retro but soulful debut album Messy which was released less than two months ago. The title track stands out from an accomplished list of 12 songs, but the Mercury perhaps looks out of reach for this smooth offering.
Two years on from her acrimonious split with Polydor, RAYE decided to go solo with good effect on her debut album My 21st Century Blues which includes UK chart-topping Escapism featuring 070 Shake. The album explores difficult subjects like body dysmorphia, anxiety and sexual assault, but it has a big sound and is in with a shout at 10/1.
No-one does disco quite like Jessie Ware and 11 years after her first nomination, the London diva is back with her fun-filled fifth album which follows in the footsteps of 2020’s successful What’s Your Pleasure? Packed full of rousing choruses with a kitchen dancefloor appeal, That! Feels Good! ain’t half bad and is definitely in the running, although she is now 14/1.
Elsewhere, rapper J Hus is 16/1 for Beautiful and Brutal Yard, and Jazz quintet Ezra Collective are 20/1 for their exceptional fourth album Where I’m Meant To Be which could propel the Londoners into the big time. Jazz generally fares badly at the Mercury, so despite their merits, it’s probably best to look elsewhere.
The Arctic Monkeys are 25/1 to repeat their 2006 Mercury success with seventh album The Car, a return to form for the Sheffield band which was named the best record of 2022 by the NME.
Nymph, the debut album of singer, rapper and DJ Shygirl, is also 25/1.
All odds and markets correct as of date of publication
