Hey Mercury Prize-What’s The Deal?!

So, The Murky (sorry, Mercury) Prize has once again thrown up another desperately try-hard-to-be-different result with it’s award of (British) album of the year to Speech Debelle’s ‘Speech Therapy’, which will no doubt have Guardian readers across the land slavering over the prospect of being able to demonstrate both their non-mainstream musical tastes, their political correctness and lack of racism at their next dinner party. Isn’t it great when a nice, middle-class kid puts a nice, acceptable face on a musical genre usually reserved for the disillusioned and the downtrodden? Now we can all champion the cause of black female empowerment, whilst still retaining our comfortable and deeply ingrained sensibilities. How fun.

Now, I don’t wish to diss on Speech Debelle or her debut album (one which I do not dislike, and which certainly has its moments), but is this really the best album Britain has proffered in the last twelve months? If it is, then British music is in even more trouble than I originally thought. If, (as I suspect), it isn’t, then it begs the question as to why an album which sold less than 3000 copies has won what has become quite a prestigious prize, albeit largely due to the inability of the BRITS to make any credible contributions to British pop music. Is it the politically correct choice? Is it because female singer-songwriters are ‘in’ at the moment? Is it because she’s never been in the NME? Or is it just rigged?
Whatever the reason, I’m sure Speech will join such former winners as M-People, Gomez, and Talvin Singh (who beat off Blur’s ‘13’ to win in 1999! 13! How?!) in the ever-growing list of musicians who enjoyed a small jump in sales before effectively ending their careers with a big sip of Mercury from it’s very own poisoned chalice.

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