A Yankee Look At the 2022 Mercury Prize Nominee Albums Part 1

Let's see how many albums you've heard for one of the UK's most prestigious music awards.

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Last year, I wrote a deep dive on the Mercury Prize nominees. It was a unique batch of nominees, as eight of the ten were first-timers as the panel continues to move away from their rock roots in favor of being open to all genres.

With the 2022 edition, I want to give readers more of an opportunity to explore the albums, so instead of running through all ten albums, with many that you probably haven’t heard if you’re stateside, I’m going to divide them between today and next Tuesday’s newsletter.

This year’s controversy, cos ya need one ya know, is the inclusion of global pop superstar Harry Styles, but people have short-term memories and don’t remember that many of the ilks have come before (more on that later). While a pop album is going up against supposed indies, the most surprising thing from my perspective is that most of these albums are still issued by major record labels. Warner Bros., Universal, and Sony are all here. The notion that the UK divisions of the labels can release albums with this much creativity and innovation while their American counterparts are essentially creatively bankrupt in their bland, algorithm-driven releases. I don’t often feature major label releases because my interest isn’t usually there anymore. But if the major labels here were to explore more compelling artists like the ones you’ll find below, I may be singing a different tune.

Most of you reading this remember it wasn’t always this way.

In addition, on Tuesday, I’ll have a playlist of songs from these albums. These aren’t always necessarily singles or hits, but instead, ones that stuck out to me as I worked through them.

Tell me if you’ve heard any of the nominated albums or anything you’re digging after reading about them!

Fergus McCreadie - Forest Floor

When it comes to jazz albums, the Mercury Prize tends to highlight younger artists, which is pretty rad. Like Nubya Garcia last year, Fergus McCreadie is a 25-year-old Scottish piano wiz who has already won the Album of the Year for the Parliamentary and Scottish Jazz Awards. Forest Floor is full of gorgeous melodies that explore Scottish folk traditions and rhythms.

Upon the nomination, McCreadie is also a realist and said, “I’m not even thinking about it (winning) in that way. If I did, there would be an 11 out of 12 chance that I’m going to be very disappointed.” That said, Forest Floor is a gorgeous jazz record that pairs well with that Sunday morning cup of coffee—highly recommended.

Gwenno - Tresor

Gwenno Saunders grew up with a Welsh-speaking mother and Cornish-speaking father before getting a start in The Lord of the Dance and eventually joining the British indie pop girl group, The Pipettes. All of this comes together for a truly magical album in Tresor, one that finds Saunders exploring the impact of motherhood on her life, technological alienation, and mediations on home (this is a covid-era album, after all).

The twist here is that all but one song is in Cornish, and the other, “NYCAW,” which translates into an acronym for Wales Is Not For Sale, is in Welsh. If you’re a longtime reader of Check This Out! you’ll know this works in the album’s favor to me. Instead of getting caught up in the lyrics, it allows an English-speaking listener to drift into the ethereal folk melodies combined with mellow electronica with bewitching results. “Anima” and “Tresor” are some of the best songs of the year, and “Ardamm” uses its seven minutes wisely, fading into a driving bass riff, not unlike something from fellow Welshwoman Cate Le Bon’s excellent Pompeii from earlier this year.

Tresor will definitely be poking around my year-end list, but it’s too abstract for a Mercury Award. With an air of Kate Bush, maybe Stranger Things Season 34 will shine the light on Gwenno for the Nomad Generation™ (coining the phrase now).

Harry Styles - Harry’s House

If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen a series I started earlier this year called Albums I Didn’t Want To Listen To, which I promise I will get back to (and just maybe that recent Interpol review could have been a part of the series).

Harry’s House was one of those albums and has been the only one in the series I keep revisiting. Here’s what I had to say at the time, and I still stand by my short review:

Oh no, ‘arry! Yer sofa is on the ceiling!

I was already a grizzled working professional when 1D blew up, so I have never been the target audience for Mr. Styles. With this in mind, Harry’s House isn’t nearly as miserable as I expected.

“Music For a Sushi Restaurant” is precisely how one should start an album - full of pizzaz and slinky bass grooves, or the worldless chorus of horns and the phat synth set the mood. It’s like an overly poppy So-era Peter Gabriel, and dammit, it works. Things take a bit of dip with “Late Night Talking,” which is inoffensive Pop Idol stuff that fades into the background, but there’s much worse out there, as the same applies for “Grapejuice.” My guy sure does love his fruit.

“As It Was” deserves to be the enormous single it is and recalls Phoenix in their heydey (or maybe it’s just me listening to their first single in five years). For a song about blow, “Daylight” is a bit sleepy and is where the album kinda tails off outside of “Satellite”... How many people will discover Nick Drake because of “Matilda?”

If ya want vibes, Harry Styles has them in droves here. I won’t complain if I hear Harry’s House at a bbq this summer for chart-topping pop music that’s usually outside my wheelhouse. As a stadium-filling megastar, my only question is, where are the big bangers outside the record’s first quarter?

However, this album is better than the Arcade Fire and Black Keys albums I’ve covered in this series so far.

The Mercury Prize is catching guff for nominating a global superstar, but I think this quote from Gigwise sums it up perfectly:

“There are many precedents for this, with Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia, Ed Sheeran’s ÷, Take That’s Everything Changes, and even the Spice Girls’ seminal LP Spice each receiving the honour across the last 30 years. The one thing all of these albums have in common is that none of them won. While it makes sense to include them on a list of 12 records reflecting a snapshot of the year, it makes less sense to crown them winners because the organisers know they’d be creating a fart-in-the-wind moment given the albums’ existing success.”

So there you have it. So far, the biggest album of the year is from the UK, so why not nominate it? If Harry includes a few more hooks next time and the album isn’t as front-loaded as Harry’s House, I’m in, dammit.

Jessie Buckley & Bernard Butler - For All Our Days That Tear The Heart

Jessie Buckley and Bernard Butler combine for the classic formula of pairing an actress with a rocker, but this turns out a little better than the mess that was ScarJo and Pete Yorn or She & Him (absolutely no one asked for this new Brian Wilson covers album). Bleh.

Butler, formerly of Suede, is familiar with the Mercury Prize, having won the second ever with Suede’s self-titled classic debut in 1992. Buckley also does an excellent job with the vocals here, often leaping into the Florence Welch realm when she lets ‘er rip. The sequencing is a real headscratcher here, though. I’ve listened to this one a few times, and the first five songs go in one ear and out the other without registering much. I probably would have turned it off if I wasn’t listening to it for this article. Instead, things pick up in the mid-point with “Footnotes On The Map,” which presents as a stripped-down version of Tunnel of Love-era Bruce Springsteen. “We’ve Run The Distance” and “We Haven’t Spoke About The Weather” complete the mid-album hot streak, but the rest of the back half is better than anything presented in the first five songs. For All Our Days That Tear The Heart turns out to be a lovely little album, but I don’t see it winning in this lineup.

Joy Crookes - Skin

Joy Crookes has been on the UK radar for five years, but last year saw the release of her debut full-length, Skin. Recorded at Abbey Road, Skin is a lush neo-jazz album with moments of R&B and trip-hop. An autobiographical work that details Crookes’ young adulthood, Skin was a massive critical success last year and made it to number five on the UK charts. While I’ve listened to it a handful of times over the past six-plus months, it hasn’t landed as much with me as it has with some of the other nominees. That being said, the Amy Winehouse comparisons are warranted, and if that is your thing, don’t miss out on Skin. I can see this being a slight dark horse to win the Mercury Prize - if the award is meant to document the year and times, Crookes’ record is one that feels most relevant.

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Like this? Take a look at last year’s Mercury Prize article!