Nominations day!

Apologies for the slowness around here at the moment, but I am doing a proper job (ish) now! And I still haven't worked out how to post here from any other computer.

Anyway, so this year's Mercury nominations seem to be a big step forward from last year's overly obvious ones (Snow Patrol and Keane surely weren't both necessary for a start, plus they went and nominated fucking Joss Stone) although I'm struggling to find an album on the list that I can really hope for to win at the moment: Silent Alarm is definitely my favourite but has been so widely hyped already to moderate success that it's difficult to see winning doing too much good for them. A quick look at all the nominees:

Antony And The Johnsons – I Am A Bird Now: I had no idea that he was in any way British! Hope There's Someone I liked despite it seeming, well, a bit over-laboured, it hasn't got me to actually bother checking out the album yet though. It took me a while to get over the idea that I couldn't possibly like The Arcade Fire because so many annoying people did though to be fair that was before having been able to hear them at all.

Bloc Party – Silent Alarm: Not quite consistently fantastic but very nearly, my favourite by some way from this list. Like Eating Glass is one of the most intense and amazing songs of the year for sure. That all doesn't excuse releasing so many singles with such lazy non-B-sides though.

Hard-Fi – Stars Of CCTV: Occasionally a little clumsy in lyrics particularly, but when the alternative is Kasabian's say-nothing attempts at attitude, and when they have a lot of great songs to back it up with it doesn't seem too bad. The longer they leave it before the inevitable rerelease of Cash Machine the more wrong it's going to sound.

Kaiser Chiefs – Employment: Fantastic pop album, almost every track a joy from start to finish; only Dogs Die In Hot Cars and The Coral have managed this kind of thing better on recent debuts.

MIA – Arular: Hyped like anything but selling almost nothing, I have to admit to not hearing anything outside of the Glastonbury coverage on TV, that seemed promising though. I wonder if anyone is thinking 'I didn't realise that she'd done anything since Lady Marmalade'?

The Magic Numbers – The Magic Numbers: Forever Lost has crept up on me and is now sounding utterly gorgeous, they seemed a little boring when I saw them live though so haven't got the album yet.

Coldplay – X&Y: All of their albums have been nominated now which is surely unnecesary. This one could be their grand achievement if it wasn't for the lyrics.

The Go! Team – Thunder, Lightning Strike: I really liked the single which, erm, I can't remember the name of anymore. Oops.

KT Tunstall – Eye To The Telescope: Would rather have seen Jem here, her album is at least brilliant and more interesting in places.

Maximo Park – A Certain Trigger: A few great singles and the outrageously brilliant Acrobat aside, isn't especially thrilling.

Seth Lakeman – Kitty Jay
Polar Bear – Held On The Tips Of Fingers: I haven't heard of either of these previously, as Polar Bear apparently aren't the same band who forced Snow Patrol to change their name from Polar Bear years ago.

Just as importantly (well ok then, more), the Popjustice Twenty Quid Music Prize!! Which has an equally quite good line-up, despite the shocking absence of Natasha Bedingfield's amazing These Words (and they nominated Daniel a couple of years ago!).

Basement Jaxx - Oh My Gosh: Instant, funny, cute... a great single indeed.

Charlotte Church - Crazy Chick: Growing on me, but still not seeming all that fantastic. One of her best by far though apparently.

The 411 - Dumb: Stylish, but a little dull, and their first single was much better although having said that I now can't even seem to remember the name of it.

Girls Aloud - Wake Me Up: Ah, those metallic swooshes in the chorus are glorious... I'm yet to be fully converted to believing in their all-out brilliance but they're clearly a step ahead of most and this is a pretty good example of it. Even their new single which sounded depressingly non-descript at first actually sounded good on CD:UK this morning.

Goldfrapp - Ooh La La: Talent In A Previous Life notes the similarity of this to Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Presuming that they are also thinking of the bassline to Spread Your Love, that was stolen from Spirit In The Sky in the first place anyway though. To be honest I haven't heard it enough to really judge it but it sounds promising. Oh and if you're thinking that it hasn't been released yet, Mr. PJ himself shows up on the comments thread over at Sweeping The Nation to explain that this is included on the basis that it has been released online already.

Kaiser Chiefs - Every Day I Love You Less And Less: Their finest moment to date, and it fits the list much better than Keane did last year. Always good to see an acknowledgement that, while white boys with guitars who play their own instruments etc etc aren't the be all and end all of music, it doesn't actually make them all crap by default, too.

Mylo - In My Arms: Appreciation of this was slightly scuppered by being fed up with the sample already, nicely done stuff anyway though (as opposed to the other efforts).

Rachel Stevens - Negotiate With Love: She doesn't quite have the necessary attitude to make it as perfect as it could be but the chorus is brilliant enough for it not to matter too much.

Shapeshifters - Lola's Theme: I thought that this was too long ago but I guess not quite... so uplifting and enjoyable that they tried to release it again with a different title not so long ago.

Uniting Nations - Out Of Touch: A little far outside the range of styles I can find appreciation for generally (yeah, I can't help it), incredibly catchy though I suppose.

Verbalicious - Don't Play Nice: The only one to which my response was 'huh?'. Seemed to be on the boundary between unremarkable and annoying the few times I have heard it.

Robbie Williams - Radio: His best single ever by quite some distance! Unexpected, twisted, unique and yet very catchy, it didn't matter that he chose to sing total nonsense over it. In fact, that might have been a good thing.