East Angles Music Prize: The final prizegiving

Listening to Kermode and Mayo laugh at 'format' (essentially, they've had a lame ongoing weekly feature imposed on them by BBC bosses, theirs being to ask interviewees 'what was the first film you saw') reminded me of salutary lessons learnt at my first editor role on PlayStation Power. That being, don't run ongoing features if they haven't got the legs to go beyond two editions.

Or, two blogs.

The East Angles Music Prize was a decent idea but, ahem, it's going the way of a millstone round my neck. And I'm repeating myself with the nominations. So you'll excuse me if I curtail it somewhat and just tell you the rest of category winners. Now. And then we can all move on... After all, it's February, and 2009 is so last year.

Best British Group

(Brits: Doves, Friendly Fires, JLS, Kasabian, Muse)

Arctic Monkeys were a surprise omission from the Brits, although generally the darker Humbug didn't go down that well. But Cornerstone and Crying Lightning were great singles, lyrically if nothing else, and the album was really only let down by a couple of weak tracks. Still, they're not the Best British Group. Neither are The XX. It's Wild Beasts. I've banged on about them enough on this blog, but Two Dancers is a wonderful album and they're everything a great British band should be: mysterious, intelligent, anthemic without being crass, and bound up in a very distinct Britishness. Somehow they make 'girls from Shipley, girls from Hounslow, girls from Whitby' sound as mythic as any American band referencing classic backwoods USA.

Best British Album

(Brits: Dizzee Rascal, Florence & The Machine, Kasabian, Lily Allen, Paolo Nutini)

Wild Beasts, for the reasons stated above. And one more: it was recorded in Norfolk. Although all the press about them decamping to the wild isolation of my home county made me laugh: the studio is about two minutes from the A11...

Best British Single

I'm not a huge fan of Kasabian and their apparent desire to be the next Oasis. But stadium rock that fuses indie, disco and glam, and does it live with gospel singers deserves all the plaudits it can get. Thank God Tom Meighan has cut his hair since this...

And that's all chaps. Lesson learnt. Single topic blogs from now on!

He says it best, when he says nothing at all

So, Alan McGee has shot his mouth off again: this time saying the Brits should be scrapped. The very same man, who in 1996 was 'amused and proud' - according to the brilliant history of Creation Records, My Magpie Eyes Are Hungry For The Prize - when Oasis won three Brits. But then, McGee has made a career of being contrary and shoots his mouth off so regularly you sense he has to be more and more outlandish just so someone will listen. Take That should be shot. Paul McCartney should retire.

Actually, so should McGee. Although I suppose the East Angles Music Prize does in a way agree with McGee in that by doing this, I'm also implying that there's better music out there which is not being recognised. And that's no more evident than in the next category...

Best British Breakthrough Act

(Brits: Florence And The Machine, Friendly Fires, JLS, La Roux, Pixie Lott)

I'm presuming that the breakthrough act has to have released a record last year. Which, of course, Friendly Fires didn't. They re-released their fine debut album in 2009, but really should have been in last year's awards. Florence And The Machine and La Roux I can also understand, and JLS and Pixie Lott make more sense in this category too. But there are better...

The XX

It can only be sales which stopped The XX (pictured above) being nominated as Best British Breakthrough Act at the Brits. Most end of year polls had this London quartet - who recently became a trio - near the top, and rightly so. Their debut was genuinely unique - a minimal, brooding nocturnal soundtrack which fused rock songwriting with a glitchy, electronic, chill-out atmosphere. I interviewed them for their debut single, and they were painfully shy and untrained in the ways of the media. They're on the front of the NME this week, but the very fact they weren't pop stars throughout last year when you sense they could have been, made The XX all the more alluring.

Micachu And The Shapes

My second nomination for Micachu, read what I said about her here

Mumford & Sons

Every year seems to have an indie-folk crossover these days, and Mumford And Sons were 2009's. But there was substance beyond the fashionable sound: despite being alarmingly young Mumford And Sons sounded wise and grizzled beyond their years on Sigh No More. And there's banjo. Gotta love the banjo.

The Phantom Band

Usually, bands don't like to describe themselves, and when The Phantom Band said by way of introduction that they were a "proto-robofolk sextet based in Glasgow' there were probably tongues in cheeks. But it did make a kind of sense. Imagine Mumford And Sons and Phantom Band at a folk crossroads, Mumford taking the winding single-carriageway to more traditional sounds, Phantom heading down the Autobahn in search of more electronic, groove-based thrills. Here's a nice download link to Burial Sounds, the second track on their great album Checkmate Savage.

Little Boots

The second nomination for Little Boots as well. Similarly, you can read what I said about her here.

Next time: Best British Group.

Short is sweet

I had a problem with some of the critics' albums of 2009, in particular Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion, Grizzly Bear's Veckatimest, even Fever Ray's debut album. All three had brilliant moments - Animal Collective's My Girls, Grizzly Bear's Two Weeks and Fever Ray's When I Grow Up are standout tracks of last year. But the records they came from also needed a good edit. Perhaps these bands were more about creating mood and atmosphere than hit after hit, but as Merriweather Post Pavilion crept up to the hour mark, it did trip over into self-indulgence from time to time.

All of which was brought into sharp relief by my first album purchase of the year, Contra by Vampire Weekend. It's a bit early to call it great, just a week in, but just like these arty New Yorkers' debut (34 minutes) its sheer brevity is a real virtue. From Horchata to I Think Ur A Contra, their follow-up is just 36minutes long, and an endearing rattle through the styles that people love to hate a white indie band for appropriating: reggae, calypso and most obviously, Afro-pop. Listen for yourself, here:

Of course, Vampire Weekend are essentially a chart-focused pop band more disposed to making short, sharp three-minute singles than Animal Collective or Grizzly Bear. It's in their DNA, and therefore it's no wonder that a ten track album will clock in at 30-odd minutes. But having said that, my favourite records of last year were The XX's debut album (38mins) and Wild Beasts' Two Dancers (37minutes). The former was a brooding hymn to the nocturnal hours and was inspired by dubstep as much as guitar music. And the latter was intricate, quirky indie rock sung in falsetto. Both, then, exactly the kind of records you'd expect to be taking up an hour of your time - uninterested as these bands seem in hit singles (although in my world, Hooting And Howling is a No.1).

But no, they're tight, focused albums, and all the better for it. Once, all records were this long (or, perhaps, short), confined by the limitations of the vinyl format they were produced on. CDs, with their 78-minute capacity changed all that, and I suppose the digital age means an album can be as long as the band want it to be.

Perhaps the digital age has also changed my listening habits and I'm more fidgety with an album, less used to listening to it all the way through as iPod's shuffle function becomes the norm. But I do know I've been enjoying Vampire Weekend and Wild Beasts as they were intended to be heard: in one sitting.

So don't get me started on double albums...