Various Artists - 1995 Mercury Music Prize

Sorry, I haven’t posted in a while.

But, I hope these 14 tracks sort of make up for my lack. I was looking through my CDs and came across a compilation I bought back in 1995. I remember I was looking for Oasis’ “Live Forever” and was having a hard time finding the Definitely Maybe album. I saw that the song was on the 1995 Mercury Music Prize Ten Albums of the Year CD. The Mercury Prize recognizes British and Irish talent. It was established in 1992 as an alternative to the industry-dominated Brit awards . It was originally sponsored by the now-defunct telecoms company Mercury, followed in 1998 by Technics and starting in 2004 the Nationwide Building Society. The disc had songs by Leftfield, PJ Harvey, Tricky and others. Well, it was a great find.

I went to the Mercury Prize webpage and check out who won over the past 14 years. I have my own favorites, and I decided to list them here:

1992 - The Jesus and Mary Chain – Honey’s Dead – "Reverence"
1993 - New Order – Republic – "Times Change"
1994 - Blur – Parklife – "Girls & Boys"
1995 - Portishead – Dummy – "It’s a Fire"
1996 - Oasis – (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? – "Wonderwall"
1997 - Radiohead – OK Computer – "Karma Police"
1998 - Propellerheard – Decksanddrumsandrockandroll – "History Repeating"
1999 - The Chemical Brothers – Surrender – "Out of Control"
2000 - Coldplay – Parachutes – "Trouble"
2001 - Goldfrapp – Felt Mountain – "Lovely Head"
2002 - Doves – The Last Broadcast – "There Goes the Fear"
2003 - Radiohead – Hail to the Thief – "2+2=5"
2004 - Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand – "Take Me Out"
2005 - Antony and the Johnsons – I am a Bird Now – "Hope There’s Someone"

The years that I agree with their choice are in bold (I have chosen a different song from the album to highlight from Portishead). I will look at what comes out to give my opinion on the 2006 Shortlist. All comments welcome on my selections...

It looks like the 1995 Mercury Music Prize CD is out of print, but be sure to look for each individual artists' CD on Amazon