Listening Project - Mercury Music Prize 2016
by mostlymor 
Once again I take a listen to the Mercury Music Prize nominations, primarily because it offers an opportunity to hear records you'd never in a million years listen to normally, because it's the most eccentric prize-giving show in music, if not all the arts, and because it's such a bold statement to have a popular music prize that's based on artistic merit more than sales or critical favour... Yet again I attempt the impossible and predict a winner - even though I've never got it right before.
- Chart updated: 02/28/2025 08:15
- (Created: 08/31/2016 10:07).
- Chart size: 12 albums.
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So, now that the dust has settled around the final Bowie release, what do we really think of it? The three big tracks - Blackstar, Lazarus & I Can't Everything Away - are incredible, as good as anything he's ever recorded, and you can't help but read into them the obvious lyrical parallels with the twilight experiences of his life. The rest of it is a bit inconsistent, as short as it is. CHANCES OF WINNING: I hope that the jury this year will be split over any outright winner and will instead unanimously decide to honour Bowie with the award. But maybe I'm just being too sentimental.
[First added to this chart: 09/02/2016]
Year of Release:
2016
Appears in:
Rank Score:
12,397
Rank in 2016:
Rank in 2010s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Another album that just didn't hold my attention - some good songs, one great, but all at the front of the album. Too long also. This is the sort of guy the Mercury panels love to give the prize too - CHANCES OF WINNING: VERY HIGH! If the Bowie album doesn't unite the voting jury then this one might...
[First added to this chart: 09/02/2016]
Year of Release:
2016
Appears in:
Rank Score:
759
Rank in 2016:
Rank in 2010s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
The Mercury Music Prize did what it does best here - challenged my preconceptions and got me to listen to something I would never have given the time of day otherwise. I was expecting a flowery, operatic and arty-pretentious album, but this is a tough and compelling album of consistently high quality. Memorable songs and high quality production and intense performances. CHANCES OF WINNING: Could win!
[First added to this chart: 09/02/2016]
Year of Release:
2016
Appears in:
Rank Score:
774
Rank in 2016:
Rank in 2010s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
This is the best album in the selection. But then I've had more time to absorb this one. CHANCES OF WINNING: Fifth time lucky? Radiohead are just too famous and world successful to win the Mercury.
[First added to this chart: 09/02/2016]
Year of Release:
2016
Appears in:
Rank Score:
14,990
Rank in 2016:
Rank in 2010s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Gets off to an explosive start, fireworks all over the first three tracks, but then settles into a kind of middling sameyness. And too long. Not really a great album, and I'd love to be 'right on' and 'down with the kidz' and say it was a masterpiece of the future! More unlikely albums have won the Mercury before, but I don't see it uniting a jury of such different musical and social backgrounds. CHANCES OF WINNING: May get strong support from some of the jury, but too street for affluent middle class types!?
[First added to this chart: 09/02/2016]
Another grower, didn't think much of it at first, the expectation was perhaps weighing too heavily on it's delicate shoulders. Now I like it a lot. It's probably 3 or 4 tracks too long, but it's best bits are as good as anything here. CHANCES OF WINNING: Just too popular and commercially successful to win.
[First added to this chart: 09/02/2016]
Year of Release:
2016
Appears in:
Rank Score:
981
Rank in 2016:
Rank in 2010s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
This is a grower, I've played it four times in a row over a couple of days and still expect to discover more within it. Sounds a bit like Kate Bush's "Hounds Of Love" - especially that song cycle on side two. CHANCES OF WINNING: Good album, but likely to be overshadowed by other albums...
[First added to this chart: 09/02/2016]
Well, this is the second 'Grime' album I've heard. Like the Kano album I need a translator. I'm more bucolic suburban England than inner city and council estate, and hencely more Radiohead than Skepta, but y'know I can hear the appeal to the 'yoof' even I didn't exactly enjoy any of it personally. CHANCES OF WINNING: Low.
[First added to this chart: 09/02/2016]
Year of Release:
2016
Appears in:
Rank Score:
326
Rank in 2016:
Rank in 2010s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Performances and production are phenomenal., vocals are generally a weak point, but Track 3 is stunning, reminiscent of Prince or D'Angelo. CHANCES OF WINNING: I'd be (pleasantly) surprised if it won, but surely the Kiwanuka album has the edge.
[First added to this chart: 09/02/2016]
Long, inconsistent and middle of the road. I was bored and ready to move on about three quarters of the way through. Maybe it's me, this isn't really my thing - it's far too commercial and marketed at the sort of modern yuppie that gets turned off by originality and passion, Coffee table stuff. CHANCES OF WINNING: Too commercially successful to need them anyway.
[First added to this chart: 09/02/2016]
Total albums: 12. Page 1 of 2
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Listening Project - Mercury Music Prize 2016 composition
| Year | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 0 | 0% | |
| 2011 | 0 | 0% | |
| 2012 | 0 | 0% | |
| 2013 | 0 | 0% | |
| 2014 | 0 | 0% | |
| 2015 | 1 | 8% | |
| 2016 | 11 | 92% | |
| 2017 | 0 | 0% | |
| 2018 | 0 | 0% | |
| 2019 | 0 | 0% |
| Artist | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|||
| Laura Mvula | 1 | 8% | |
| Savages | 1 | 8% | |
| David Bowie | 1 | 8% | |
| The Comet Is Coming | 1 | 8% | |
| Michael Kiwanuka | 1 | 8% | |
| Anohni | 1 | 8% | |
| Radiohead | 1 | 8% | |
| Show all | |||
Listening Project - Mercury Music Prize 2016 chart changes
| Biggest climbers |
|---|
| Up 3 from 9th to 6thI Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It by The 1975 |
| Up 1 from 6th to 5thMade In The Manor by Kano (UK) |
| Biggest fallers |
|---|
| Down 2 from 5th to 7thThe Bride by Bat For Lashes |
| Down 1 from 7th to 8thKonnichiwa by Skepta |
| Down 1 from 8th to 9thMaking Time by Jamie Woon |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| Listening Project - Mercury Music Prize 2014 | mostlymor | Custom chart | 2025 | |
| Listening Project - Mercury Music Prize 2015 | mostlymor | Custom chart | 2025 | |
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Listening Project - Mercury Music Prize 2016 ratings
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