The 2023 Mercury Prize won’t be announced until September, but we already have a winner for this year’s most random nominee. A round of applause, please, for “super producer” and songwriter Fred Again!
His spot on the distinguished music award shortlist is part of a long Mercury Prize tradition of championing at least one eye-rollingly bad album each year. In 2022, it was Harry Styles's art-pop pastiche, Harry's House. Back in 2017, it was Ed Sheeran's chart-dominating Divide that split opinion. Is it symptomatic of a wider issue? Probably. A glance at shortlists over the past decade and it's obvious that the Mercurys doesn't quite know what it wants to be. Call it an identity crisis.
