Manic Street Preachers Favorites For Mercury Prize

07/28/1999 4:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Craig Rosen

(7/28/99, 1 p.m. PDT) - This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours by modern rockers the Manic Street Preachers is the favorite to win the Mercury Music Prize, which has been awarded annually since 1992 to celebrate the importance of British music in the music industry.

According to the BBC, British oddsmakers William Hill have set the odds at 3-1 that the Manics will take the award. While the list leans heavily on modern music, it also includes entries from pianist/ composer/ conductor Thomas Ades, folk artist Kate Rusby, and the heavily Asian-influenced music of Talvin Singh and Black Star Liner.

Past winners of the award include Primal Scream's Screamadelica (1992), Suede's Suede (1993), M People's Elegant Slumming (1994), Portishead's Dummy (1995), Pulp's Different Class (1996), Roni Size & Reprazent's New Forms (1997), and Gomez's Bring It On (1998).

The award is presented to the artist from the UK recognized as releasing the best album in the past year. A panel, headed by music critic Simon Frith, has whittled down a list of 140 entries to an even dozen.

Here are the nominees for the 1999 Mercury Music Prize (with odds from UK William Hill):

Manic Street Preachers, This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours (3-1)
The Chemical Brothers, Surrender (4-1)
Blur, 13 (6-1)
Stereophonics, Performance & Cocktails (6-1)
Faithless, Sunday 8 p.m. (7-1)
Underworld, Beaucoup Fish (8-1)
Talvin Singh, OK (10-1)
Beth Orton, Central Reservation (10-1)
Black Star Liner, Bengali Bantam Youth Experience! (14-1)
Thomas Ades, Asyla (16-1)
Denys Baptiste, Be Where You Are (16-1)
Kate Rusby, Sleepless (16-1)

Features on the Manic Street Preachers, Talvin Singh, Suede, Roni Size, Gomez, Blur, and Underworld are available on LAUNCH.com.

-- Barry Jeckell, New York

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