UK MC Speech Debelle’s Speech Therapy was named the winner of the 2009 Mercury Prize this evening; Debelle’s debut album bested offerings from fellow UK citizens like Bat For Lashes, La Roux, and Florence and the Machine, among others. Meanwhile, the singles-centric Popjustice Twenty Quid Music Prize, which also had quite the competitive field, was nabbed by Girls Aloud’s sterling “The Promise,” because come on, it’s amazing, how could it not?? (Full disclosure: I voted for it.) Clips from the winners after the jump! More »
Bat For Lashes’ Two Suns, Florence & The Machine’s Lungs, and the self-titled debuts from Glasvegas and La Roux are among the nominees for the Barclaycard Mercury Prize, awarded annually to the best album from the United Kingdom or Ireland. While there are some glaring omissions as always (um, Micachu?????), digging around for videos by the nominees revealed a couple of new-to-me acts—the hip-hop artist Speech Debelle, the experimental jazz outfit Led Bib—who proved intriguing on first listen. The nominees, and representative videos, after the jump. More »
