🎤 Mercury Prize - Best of the rest (1996) 🎤

As per normal we have up to three votes to decide who should get the coveted second place at the mercury prize from a particular year. This time it’s 1996!
The 1996 mercury prize was won by Pulp - Different Class

Previous Winners from these threads…
1992 - Saint Etienne - Foxbase Alpha
1993 - PJ Harvey - Rid of me
1994 - Pulp - His ‘n’ Hers
1995 - Tricky - Maxinquaye
1997 - Radiohead - OK Computer
1998 - Massive Attack - Mezzanine
1999 - Blur - 13
2000 - Doves - Lost souls
2001 - Radiohead - Amnesiac
2002 - The Streets - Original Pirate Material
2003 - Radiohead - Hail to the thief
2005 - Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
2006 - Hot Chip - The Warning
2007 - Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
2008 - Radiohead - In Rainbows
2009 - The Horrors - Primary Colours
2010 - Wild Beasts - Two Dancers
2011 - Metronomy - The English Riviera
2012 - Field Music - Plumb
2013 - Jon Hopkins - Immunity
2015 - Aphex Twin - Syro
2016 - David Bowie - Blackstar
2017 - The xx - I see you
2018 - Arctic Monkeys - Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino
2019 - Little Simz - Grey Area
2020 - Dua Lipa - Future Nostalgia
2021 - Sault - Untitled (rise) / Mogwai - As the love continues
2023 - Young Fathers - Heavy Heavy

  • Artists for war child - Help
  • Black Grape - It’s great when you’re straight… Yeah
  • Peter Maxwell Davies/BBC Philharmonic - The Beltane fire / Caroline Mathilde
  • Manic Street Preachers - Everything must go
  • Mark Morrison - Return of the Mack
  • Oasis - (What’s the story) Morning glory?
  • Courtney Pine - Modern day jazz stories
  • Underworld - Second toughest in the infants
  • Norma Waterson - Norma Waterson
0 voters

Might listen to the Mark Morrison album

Not sure if you are joking or serious?!

Why would somebody not listen to it, given it’s one of 10ish albums on this list?

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Sorry Mark

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How often do classical albums get nominated? Don’t remember seeing one before

There has been a few

Apology NOT accepted

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Etc

Everything Must Go by a country mile.

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Can’t argue with the winner, but that’s a pretty boggin list when you consider that Stereolab’s Emperor Tomato Ketchup, Super Furry Animals’ Fuzzy Logic and High Llamas’ Hawaii were all released the same year.

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I’m semi-serious

Or I could just vote for Oasis and get on with my life

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Manics, Oasis, Warchild

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Is this the only time a compilation has been nominated? Are compilations even eligible normally?

EDIT: Actually, wasn’t there a thing with this one where the label claimed that it wasn’t a various artists compilation but actually by a War Child supergroup so they’d get in the main album charts?

Anyway, Underworld, Manics and Black Grape for me.

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Not the worst year. A pretty worthy winner, and at least three easy contenders to the throne; Underworld’s (arguably) best album, the Manic’s most commercially successful and the artistic zenith of Mr Shaun Ryder in Black Grape’s debut.

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They maybe got in because it wasn’t a compilation of previously released stuff, they were all new recordings I think. The concept was that all the stuff would be recorded in a day and the album would come out by the end of the week (I don’t know how closely they stuck to that).

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I think that was (at least touted as) the point of the album; everything was brand new and recorded in 24 hours. Considering that, it’s fucking brilliant. Doesn’t belong in the Mercury Prize, though.

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Preachers
Grape
Glory

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