Music Blogs

Regular readers to this column - there are one or two I believe - will know that your host is not afraid to put his money where his big mouth is. Exactly a year ago on these pages, I backed Klaxons to win the 2007 Mercury Prize and ended the evening bathing in champagne and hookers after taking home £250. Ten minutes ago, a UK bookies received a call from a Mr J Famethrowa and proceeded to withdraw another £30 from my bank account, as we enter the final hours before the 2008 winner will be announced at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London.

Semi-unmasked dubstep ghost Burial is set to go into tonight's bash as favourite, traditionally not a position that results in victory. Not that the skewed brains behind the corroded cityscapes of "Untrue" is likely to be there to lap up the free booze and nosh. I think he, Elbow and Radiohead would all be worthy winners but can't honestly see how any of the candidates beyond them can say the same thing. In fact, as much as Elbow have given over the past decade and as pioneering and strange as Burial has shown it possible to still be as a musician, my money is on Radiohead. If one band ever deserved to win the Mercury Prize, it's them and "In Rainbows", for countless reasons, is surely the album to do it. Fingers crossed...

For those still requiring guidance on tonight's runners and riders, below is a handy, bite-sized guide to all those on the shortlist, including Yahoo! Music's reviews and the latest odds.

Adele "19" (20-1)

- The new Aretha? The new Dusty? Or is she the new Michelle McManus?! The BBC's Sound Of 2008 winner has the roar of a lion with a tooth-ache and the sort of mouthy LDN attitude that could represent Peaches Geldof in court and win.

British Sea Power "Do You Like Rock Music?" (20-1)

- The Brighton quartet play in ‘60s football kits, surrounded by air-raid sirens and foliage and speak of the power of Czech ecstasy. In an era of desperate to please vanilla indie and mortgage rock, a band to believe in.

Burial "Untrue" (5-6)

- Spectacularly unknowable London dubstep producer, recently revealed to be South London resident Will Bevan, who uses twisted, paranoid beats and sonics to make eating at MacDonald's sound as horrific as it actually is.

Elbow "The Seldom Seen Kid (3-1)

- Guy Garvey and co go overground with their fourth and most mature, accessible collection of songs. Surely and rightly, this could be their time.

Estelle "Shine" (33-1)

- So pathetic is the UK R&B and hip hop scene that the London starlet had to take her music to America, where she received patronage from Kanye West, Jay-Z, John Legend and adopted UK gold-maker Mark Ronson. Here is her reward.

Laura Marling "Alas, I Cannot Swim" (10-1)

- The teenage prodigy has been compared to Kate Bush and Joni Mitchell and with her debut helping to spearhead the burgeoning UK folk scene, such claims are looking anything but far-fetched.

The Last Shadow Puppets "The Age Of The Understatement" (16-1)

- As if to prove that pulling Alexa Chung was no fluke, Arctic Monkey Alex Turner has got a third consecutive Mercury nomination with this supposed ‘side-project'. Rascals wing-man Miles Kane must be praying there will be a second helping of the lush, Scott Walker orchestration of their debut.

Neon Neon "Stainless Style" (25-1)

- The hardest working man in pop that isn't Mark Ronson, Super Furries chief Gruff Rhys took time out from his 18 other projects to meet the questionable demand for a ‘80s throwback concept album about the DeLorean car with a hip hop producer, namely US sound man Boom Bip.

Portico Quartet "Knee-Deep In The North Sea" (10-1)

- Peculiar left-field choice #1 with debut album from London-based jazz quartet.

Rachel Unthank & The Winterset "The Bairns" (10-1)

- Peculiar left-field choice #2 with second album from Northumberland-based quartet.

Robert Plant & Alison Krauss "Raising Sand" (25-1)

- Confusion and frustration may have greeted the Led Zeppelin frontman's decision not to launch a full reunion after last year's one-off London show. But not for those who have heard this beguiling, charmed collection of covers with bluegrass icon Krauss.

Radiohead "In Rainbows" (6-1)

- An inventive, detailed and richly melodic return from Thom and co which was not only free to thousands but also the near impossible match of landmark predecessors "OK Computer" and "Kid A". Viva la revolution.