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Kelly Rissman
US Information Reporter
Rock band English Trainer’s debut album, This May Be Texas, has been introduced because the winner of the 2024 Mercury Prize.
The Leeds-formed four-piece, fronted by Lily Fontaine, impressed the judges with their “profitable lyrical mixture of surrealism and social commentary, alongside a refined manner of carrying its musical improvements frivolously”, on songs equivalent to “I’m Not Crying, You’re Crying”, “Albatross” and “Damaged Biscuits”.
They beat fierce competitors from pop star Charli XCX – whose sixth album Brat was thought-about a robust favorite to win – baroque pop-rock band The Final Dinner Occasion, rapper Berwyn and singer-songwriter Corinne Bailey Rae.
This 12 months’s ceremony – scaled down after organisers didn’t discover a sponsor – came about at Abbey Street Studios in London and was hosted by Annie Macmanus and Huw Stephens.
Visitor presenter, 6 Music’s Jamz Supernova, introduced the general winner on behalf of the judging workforce, with the band visibly struggling to beat their shock as they accepted the award.
“We simply thought we’d make a band,” Fontaine mentioned, whereas her bandmates paid tribute to members of the Leeds music group, together with the Brudenell Music Social Membership’s proprietor, Nathan Clark.
“What can we do now?” she requested.
The judging panel mentioned: “This has been a extremely robust 12 months for the Mercury Prize judges, with the ultimate 12 albums being so reflective of our numerous and wealthy musical panorama. There was a lot ardour and enthusiasm for every one.
“In the long run, although, we did agree that This May Be Texas by English Trainer stands out for its originality and character. A profitable lyrical mixture of surrealism and social commentary, alongside a refined manner of carrying its musical improvements frivolously, shows a contemporary method to the standard guitar band format. This May Be Texas reveals new depths on each pay attention; the mark of a future traditional.
“The Mercury Prize was set as much as have a good time the album as a creative format in its personal proper and all of the judges agreed that this charismatic physique of labor deserves to be the 2024 Mercury Prize Album of the Yr.”
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English Trainer have been tipped by The Impartial as Ones to Watch in 2023 and just lately featured in a stripped-back Music Field session.
In a four-star assessment of This May Be Texas, The Impartial’s Louis Chilton praised its “artful” and “allusive” lyricism, in addition to its formidable sound.
“English Trainer are sometimes characterised as ‘post-punk’ – a pigeonhole that’s solely half correct,” he wrote. “[It’s] apt at factors – notably once they twin sharp, rhythmic guitars with Fontaine’s drolly inflected sprechgesang, as they do on the breathless and slippery ‘I’m Not Crying, You’re Crying’.
“Fontaine speak-sings, too, via verses of the mercurial “Not Everyone Will get to Go to Area”, which evokes – not for the primary time on the file – the uncooked and potent sounds of Scottish art-rock group Life With out Buildings.”
This 12 months marked Charli’s second spot on the Mercury Prize shortlist, following one for her 2020 lockdown album, How I’m Feeling Now.
Different former nominees on the 2024 shortlist included Trinidad-born, London-raised rapper Berwyn (beforehand shortlisted in 2021 for his mixtape Demotape/Vega) and Leeds singer-songwriter Corinne Bailey Ray, who was up this 12 months with Black Rainbows, her psych rock-leaning exploration of race, identification and empowerment.
Brat noticed Charli return to collaborate with lots of her avant-garde friends, equivalent to AH Prepare dinner, Gesaffelstein, Easyfun and Hudson Mohawke. It was dubbed by the artist as her “most aggressive and confrontational file”, but additionally her most susceptible.
Followers heard this on the cocky “Von Dutch”, during which she mocks a jealous competitor, and on the braggadocio of “360”, the place she namechecks It Ladies equivalent to Julia Fox. Then there was “Woman, So Complicated”, the place she realises that her personal insecurities are what led to a rivalry with one other pop singer, and “I May Say One thing Silly”, about feeling out-of-place at a celebration.
Such was the cultural affect of the album that it was co-opted by the marketing campaign workforce of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, after Charli shared a publish to X/Twitter that said merely: “Charli IS Brat.”
Charli skipped the ceremony, as she was within the closing levels of rehearsing for her US tour with Australian pop singer Troye Sivan. Her co-producers AG Prepare dinner and Easyfun attended on her behalf.
The total shortlist for the 2024 Mercury Prize is as follows:
Barry Can’t Swim – When Will We Land?’
BERWYN – Who Am I
Beth Gibbons – Lives Outgrown
Cat Burns – early twenties
Charli XCX – Brat
CMAT – Crazymad, for Me
Corinne Bailey Rae – Black Rainbows
corto.alto – Unhealthy with Names
English Trainer – This May Be Texas
Ghetts – On Function, With Function
Nia Archives – Silence Is Loud
The Final Dinner Occasion – Prelude to Ecstasy
English Trainer’s win takes place in the identical week they introduced they have been scrapping their forthcoming US tour “for well being causes”, having beforehand remarked on the monetary pressure created by touring in an interview with The Guardian.
This 12 months’s Mercury Prize matched 2020 as the best gender stability within the award’s historical past, with eight out of 12 shortlisted acts being feminine or female-fronted.
To be eligible, albums by British and Irish artists will need to have a UK launch date between 15 July 2023 and 12 July 2024.
A win tends to lead to a welcome gross sales spike. Final 12 months’s winners, jazz quintet Ezra Collective, loved a 6,012 per cent improve in gross sales of their album The place I’m Meant to Be instantly after receiving the prize, in response to knowledge from the Official Charts Firm. The file additionally re-entered the High 40; in November, the band will turn out to be the primary jazz act ever to headline Wembley Enviornment.
