Laura Marling and Mumford & Sons nominated for Mercury prize

Interesting, despite my regular reading of FFS, I wasn’t quite aware of how big the folk revival (is it that? I’m not sure it is really, but more of that another time), had become until I went to Glastonbury this year and Mumford and Sons and Laura Marling seemed to sweep all before them. They’ve become the pin-ups/the standard bearers of this current infatuation without actually (whisper it) being very good. This year’s Mercury Music prize is split down pretty opposite lines, with a handful of folky acts

So now we’ve got a bandwagon, with everyone jumping on it. Bombay Bicycle Club release an acoustic album and every middle class boy or girl with a guitar, proper diction and a decent set of cheekbones are angling for a record deal.

So what’s it all about? I’m buggered if I know. I’ve got some poorly thought ideas that I’ll chuck forward though.

There’s that searching for an authenticity, no matter how faux it really is, the Seasick Steve phenomenon where all the twats who believe that music is only real if it’s made on a busted acoustic guitar and a bloke with a beard get all excited. You know the types. Earnest, clean cut people who think that the blues is authentic and that guitar technique is more important than a blast of excitement. The sort that believe Mark Knofler is better than the Mary Chain, yeah, you know them. They’ve got a list of their top 10 guitar heroes, and none, NONE of the people in my music collection make it on to their list.

There’s this theory that guitars stopped being rebellious in 1994, because as soon as Oasis got mainstream you had parents from the 60s and kids liking the same music. The generation gap died, right there and then, since then it’s been a big happy cross generational hugfest. There’s a lot of that in this current marketing too. Who’s not only got the money but also the inclination to pay for music? Not the kids that’s for sure, so if you can flog someone safe and harmless and who sounds like Joni Mitchell, well it’s right result in today’s music business. The parents buy the albums, the kids go to the concerts and the evil music business man strokes his moustache and chuckles.

So what do we have now? Well, we don’t have the excitement, wit and humour of the Moldy peaches from 10 years ago, we don’t have the ragged exuberance of the crusties from 20 years ago, and we don’t have the anger of the mid 80s TMTCH, Pogues or Billy Bragg. That’s not what all of this is about. This is music for all those people who have CDs with ‘if you buy one album a year’ stickers on the front. It is, and trust me, this isn’t a compliment, tasteful

There’s some great stuff about, I’m not going to be a naysayer, Bright Eyes, Frank Turner, Beans on Toast, Emmy the Great, Noah & The Wale (damn, where’s that album on the Mercury shortlist? Best album by a country mile) and loads more but the stuff that’s selling now, the stuff that’s everywhere, on the mercury prize and in every coffee shop, well, I don’t mean to be blunt, but to me it’s boring, unchallenging, unthinking ‘nice’ music and as the devil whispered, ‘It’s pretty, but is it art?’

I remember being disappointed when Laura’s first album (Alas, I Cannot Swim) lost out on a Mercury Prize to Elbow a few years back so I think there would be some kind of justice if she was to win it this year. Besides, I feel that her album is much more polished/rounded than Mumford & Sons.

I actually prefer The XX’s album to the rest actually. Whilst not folk per se, it still shares the sombre yet melancholic tones and uplifting crescendos of the alt folk movement.