Dylan Mills in his younger, pre-pop days.

The default position for ‘alternative’ music lovers and bands is to self-righteously bang on about how music isn’t a competition, especially around the time of mainstream award ceremonies. Then, when the nominations for the Mercury music prize for best British album of the year are released, the clichés about how ‘winning doesn’t matter’ and that ‘it’s just about the music, man’ are strained to breaking point and the unconcerned façade often slips from the more fame hungry artists: just look at Florence’s forced smile after she lost to Speech Debelle last year. So now that time of year has come around again, lets see who is in the running to be crowned champion of Critically Acclaimed UK Music 2010.

If it were decided by sales or number 1 singles, then Dizzee Rascal would be the clear winner. However, the Mercury Prize isn’t meant to be about commercial success, rather the quality of the music*, which often does not tend to be very high in mainstream pop records, and on the whole Tongue N’ Cheek is a mainstream pop record. More importantly, there are a lot of critics who would say that Tongue N’ Cheek is, from a musical point of view, a big drop-off in Dizzee’s career. So why has it been nominated for the Mercury? Could it be that the judges are trying to give continued support to an artist who they first brought to the wider public’s attention when awarding him the prize for his dark debut Boy In Da Corner in 2003? So as to protect him from the curse of the Mercurys which has befallen previous winners such as M People, Gomez and that bloke with the Indian name what won it 1999? A bit like a football club will try and look after the education of a youngster that they’ve released to make sure he doesn’t fall into a life of crime. Probably not considering that win was seven years ago, since when he’s gone from strength to strength and is now the biggest pop star in the country. But that’s a story in itself. Dylan Mills certainly hasn’t gone the easiest route to the highest peaks of pop; he’s done it on his own label, Dirtee Stank, (having left XL after Maths and English) which is a very commendable achievement. For an independent British rapper, to have five number ones, and play two huge shows on the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury within a year would have been unthinkable only a few years ago. Now though, largely thanks to Mr Mills, the UK charts and subsequently, festivals have been overtaken by British rappers from Plan B to Tinchy Stryder, Kano to Chipmunk. Some inconsistent (Kano), some of it dire (Chipmunk), and some brilliant (Tinie Tempah), UK pop music has gone through a massive transition period in the last couple of years and Dizzee Rascal is the figurehead, even if he perhaps shouldn’t be its spokesperson (as exemplified here).

Nevertheless, no matter what he’s done in terms of changing the landscape of pop, even if it is for the better, we return to the first point: why is a pop album being considered for the Mercury? Well, for starters, (if we discard the cynics view that his nomination is purely to attract more commercial interest to the ceremony) the official website says that the prize “celebrates music of all genres by British or Irish artists”, so there’s no real reason why pop music should be excluded. Moreover, ever since it decided to take its influences from dance a couple of years ago, having exhausted R’n’B, UK pop music has been on an exciting upward curve and a lot more inventive than a lot of music genres. But at the end of the day, no matter how praiseworthy the state of chart-pop music is, and no matter how much Dizzee is to thank for that (or not depending on your view of modern pop), as an isolated recorded piece of music, Tongue N’ Cheek is a bit crap.

Clearly, if the Mercury should go to the album that most encapsulates the sound of the year then The Xx should win (for these previously stated reasons), but that doesn’t always happen, just ask The Streets. Everything is going so well for The Xx at the moment though that winning the prize wouldn’t much change the trajectory of their already stratospheric ascent. More worthwhile winners would be Wild Beasts who deserve wider recognition for their second album Two Dancers: an intelligent collection of songs of real beauty that asks questions of the listener whilst retaining the tunes. Something Foals probably think they’ve made, and to an extent they have, for Total Life Forever is very good but not as original as Two Dancers or as innovative as the slightly pretentious Oxford boys probably think it is. Similarly to Wild Beasts, Villagers’ Becoming A Jackal is an album that more people need to be aware of.

The most well known name on the list is Paul Weller, but his is not a symbolic nomination in respect of the longevity of his career; Wake Up The Nation is there on merit. The Motown-sounding single No Tears To Cry alone is so good that it would put any LP it was on in contention. At the other end of the scale the least well known name is, as always, the token jazz entry, which this year comes from Kit Downes Trio. In between is a bunch of credible but not groundbreaking records. The important thing is that whoever is nominated for the award, and whatever the judges are looking for, the Mercury Prize should be applauded for celebrating the art of the album in the age of the iPod shuffle.

Mercury Music Prize Nominees 2010: Becoming A Jackal by Villagers; Total Life Forever by Foals; Tongue N’ Cheek by Dizzee Rascal; I Speak Because I Can by Laura Marling; Wake Up The Nation by Paul Weller; Sigh No More by Mumford And Sons; The Xx by The Xx; Two Dancers by Wild Beasts; Only Revolutions by Biffy Clyro; Golden by Kit Downes Trio; Sky At Night by I Am Kloot; The Sea by Corrine Bailey Rae.

Alternative Mercury List: One Life Stand by Hot Chip; Black Light by Groove Armada; The Defamation of Strickland Banks by Plan B; A Brief History Of Love by The Big Pink; Kings And Queens by Jamie T; Hidden by These New Puritans; Acolyte by Delphic; There Is Love In You by Four Tet; Compass by Jamie Lidell; Further by The Chemical Brothers; Heligoland by Massive Attack; The First Days Of Spring by Noah And The Whale.

If America had an equivalent: Teen Dream by Beach House; Wave Like Home by Future Islands; This Is Happening by Lcd Soundsystem; High Violet by The National; Contra by Vampire Weekend; A Sufi And A Killer by Gonjasufi; Cosmogramma by Flying Lotus; OddBlood by Yeasayer; New Amerykah Part Two (Return Of The Ankh) by Erykah Badu, Treats by Sleigh Bells; Embryonic by The Flaming Lips; I’m New Here by Gil Scott-Heron.

This Page Photograph: Linda Nylind , Front page photograph: AFP

* That doesn’t always hold true though. They nominated Apache Indian in 1993 and Take That in 1994.