Twenty years in and many would argue that, as far as the Mercury awards’ history goes, this year has brought forward a middle-of-the-road selection of nominees. Yes, the token folk/jazz albums were included, but general consensus seems to be that nothing terribly era-defining was present, contrary to what we have been led to expect. So then, when self-styled “alternative indie pop quartet” alt-J were announced the winners of the Barclaycard Mercury Prize, I surely wasn’t the only one to be not totally overcome with a sense of captured zeitgeist. If their winning album, An Awesome Wave, were to be put in a time capsule and dug up in 50 years, what would it actually say about 2012?
Yes, the band’s very name (taken from the delta sign created on a Mac when you hold down the ‘alt’ and ‘J’ keys) is more alternative than a hipster’s knitwear collection, but as much as the delightfully hallucinogenic qualities to the tight vocal harmonies, quirky sampling and the dreamy falsetto of Joe Newman are appealing, they would not have been out of place at any other time in the past decade. That said, alt-J spent the last 5 years lovingly hand crafting the album, and with its wonderful narrative, with 3 short interludes, they cleverly side-stepped around the whole ‘substandard album track’ issue to produce something very listenable – and not in a bad way either.
The Intro track comprises of a rather Adele-esque piano introduction, soon joined by indie-rock quirky guitar and drum beats leading to more trip-hop, heavy synth led sections. The wonderfully bare, folksy two-part Interlude I leads almost seamlessly into Tessellate, effectively the first ‘song’ of the album, a laid back trip-hop/bass track, with the rest of the album continuing in a similar vein. Highlights include Breezeblocks (with wonderfully simple but dramatic video – definitely worth a watch) and closing track Handmade, containing a bizarre, but somehow oddly fitting, sample of Julia Lang’s famous line from “Listen With Mother”. If you fancy decoding the blurred consonants of Newman’s vocals, then the lyrics are also pleasingly off-beat (favourites include “triangles are my favourite shape”, “stickle brick, tickle quick, laugh at the beautiful” etc).
All in all, I rate the album fairly highly but am yet to be convinced, especially with the likes of Plan B’s part-political commentary Ill Manors hot on their toes, that alt-J are the sound of this year.
FOUR STARS
