Mercury Music Award Betting 2009

Internet betting on the outcome of the Mercury Music Award 2009 is gathering momentum ahead of the announcement of an outright winner as of September the 8th. Just who'll follow in the footsteps of 2008's victor - Elbow - is anyone's guess, which is making picking a winner prove tricky. However the online bookmakers believe it's a three horse race, and that this year's event is shaping up to be a battle of the babes (And La Roux's lead singer) as Bats For Lashes' Natasha Khan squares up to Florence Welch (aka, the 'Florence' part of the Machine) in terms of the online betting stakes.

Being indie music fans of the highest order here at Freebettingonline Towers, we like to take an active interest in the destination of the Mercury Music prize each and every year it's doled out to what we refer to as 'worthy winners'. Anthony And The Johnson aside. Although in their defence as his acceptance speech at the 2005 middle class-bias music bash, he did point out that the contest is akin to asking to choose between "an orange, a spaceship and a spoon."

Kasabian And Florence And The Machines Head Online Betting Favourites List For Mercury Music 2009 Honours

While the Brit Awards likes to drum up awareness and appreciation for the greatest current exponents that the world of pop has to offer, the Mercury Music Award captures the less commercially-overdriven alternatives to the likes of Robbie Williams, Girls Aloud and the very latest in a long, disturbing production line of X-Factor winners. Which on one hand can only be saluted, whilst on the other it often runs the risk of disappearing up its own plughole by trying a little too hard to appease the 'real musos'.

As is tradition with the Mercury Music Awards, there's a large quantity of names that no one has ever heard of in with a shout of scampering off with the prize for the quaintly-titled, 'Best Album'. Refreshingly as old fashioned and sentimental at it sounds in this age of downloads and music piracy/sharing malarkey we're all privy to. Thankfully those are whittled away by July of each year when a shortlist of 12 albums are put up for deliberation and final vote casting protocol is implemented. Don't worry though, as there'll still be at least half you had no previous comprehension of, along with a couple of stalwarts thrown in for good measure (Kasabian replacing the tried and tested likes of Radiohead, Portishead, Elbow and Muse as the token mainstream/populist offering so as not to alienate everyone).

Oh yes. Where would us music buffs be without hardy perennials Radiohead? Well, the melancholy Oxford innovators don't really have a point to prove any more, or a record we'd recommend listening to for that matter, so instead we can dismiss them and take a ganders at Kasabian's chances of pulling something tangible out of the Mercury record bag. Found at approximately 5 - 1 across the online betting markets on average it has to be said that things look pretty promising for our favourite Leicestershire-spawned noise-makers who continue Oasis's rowdy tradition of delivering passable stadium rock. Having had a number of their 'greatest hits' - that'll be Club Foot and Reason Is Treason - figure prominently on Sony Playstation games, Kasabian are nominated for the Mercury award for this their third, and current studio album, entitled 'West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum'; and although a little more than toe-tappingly good it wasn't at first thought to stand the proverbial cat in hells chance against the other artists hereabouts. Which was reflected in their odds until recently.

Latest Internet Betting Odds For Mercury Music Awards 2009 Winner

So who is 'competing' with the Kasabian boys for a meaningful tilt at the Mercury's in 2009 According to Ladbrokes, this is how betting prices presently look;

Florence And The Machine - Lungs (5 - 1 joint favourite)

Kasabian - West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum (5 - 1 joint favourite)

Bat For Lashes - Two Suns (6 - 1)

La Roux - La Roux (6 - 1)

Glasvegas - Glasvegas (6 - 1)

Speech Debelle - Speech Therapy (8 - 1)

Friendly Fires - Friendly Fires (8 - 1)

The Horrors - Primary Colours (8 - 1)

Lisa Hannigan - Sea Sew (8 - 1)

The Invisible - The Invisible (10 - 1)

Led Bib - Sensible Shoes (10 - 1)

Sweet Billy Pilgrim - Twice Born Men (10 - 1)

Well the oh-so-trendy Florence And The Machine is where all the sensible money's being spunked according to our online bookmaking friends over at Coral, Ladbrokes and Paddy Power, who all have the slightly unnerving Miss Welch and her technical chum (the rest of her band as such) down at 5 - 1 to sassay off with the indie cream. Having grown up surrounded by renaissance paintings and her mum's insistence on playing Tom Jones tracks, we're only surprised she not even more barking. She's described as an 'avid book reader' (which means she might know just who the hell this lot are - Man Booker Prize Betting 2009 - yet at school struggled under the burden of both dyslexia and dyspraxic. 'Lungs' is Florence's debut musical offering, yet it's this that's been shortlisted for this year's Mercury, which says more about the band's talent than we possibly could.

Online Music Betting Fans Tip Bats For Lashes For Mercury 2009 Gong

And who's this we spy as second favourite? Let's turn our clocks back to the late 1970s and marvel at Kate Bush, or, if we're brutally honest, Bats For Lashes. Fronted by kooky Bush-esque weird warbler, Natasha Khan, Bats For Lashes are no strangers to Mercury antics, as they've been here before (2007) for their debut LP, 'Fur And Gold'. It's for this - their follow-up, and notoriously difficult - second album that we're interested in though (entitled 'Two Suns') and has thus far received critical acclaim in the important music press.

Sadly this is where it all goes a little bit Pete Tong in our eyes, as Two Suns is reportedly that rare, hidden gem in recording artist's careers (for good reason), the wait for it.....'experimental' album. They've nearly all done one, although Natasha is throwing us off the scent by referring to it as her 'concept' album. Concentrating on her alter ego, Pearl, who was allegedly 'born in the desert', she adopted this personality whilst in New York and by immersing herself by the genius musical likes of MGMT. And funny smelling cigarettes to no doubt.

Sense the pattern emerging here folks? Yes, been there done that musical flashbacks to relatively recent history. All we need now is some 1980s, Flock Of Seagulls be-quiffed, electro pop synth-plodding vocaliser reliant on novelty bleeps and we'll be laughing. Cue La Roux then to tick this nostalgia fest box, and sure enough the daughter of some actress who used to be in ITV1's The Bill does just this. And that. We shouldn't mock, as we grew up with Yazoo, Heaven 17 and The Human League, who lead singer Elly Jackson quotes as major influences on La Roux's choice of undeniably electropop synth persuasion. Reputedly bullied at school for sporting a big fat ginger clout, size nine shoes and looking like a boy, Jackson channeled her teenage angst into writing Joni Mitchell-esque ditties, before being swayed by the rave movement. Despite the inevitable comparisons with the equally as awkward-yet-strong-willed Annie Lennox, she - and therein, La Roux - champion a very individual look, if not a very familiar sound. La Roux's eponymous debut LP has hitherto shed the two UK Top Ten hit singles, 'In For The Kill' and 'Bulletproof'.

Mercury Music Awards 2009 Nominees Offer Online Music Betting Fans Plenty Of Leftfield Scope

Briefly attempting to summarize the other contenders for the 2009 Mercury Music Award crown, we thought we best mention in passing who/what/why/when/where and which. Because we have to. So, shall we remain stoically in the 1980s or fast forward to the early 1990s and re-acquaintnt ourselves with Del Amitri, sorry, Glasvegas. Having been likened to The Clash (in the wardrobe department that is), the Glaswegian starlets have released the one stand out track to our way of thinking on this, their Mercury Prize-nominated debut album – A Snowflake Fell (And It Felt Like A Kiss) - called 'Daddy's Gone'. Friendly Fires are shoe-gazing merchants also presently experimenting with the electro-pop synthesiser that they found in their dad's loft space a feChristmaseses' ago, yet are going down an absolute storm in campus-ville, whilst The Horrors collectively look like Edward Scissorhands on a bad hair day and with this and their music built up quite the buzz around themselves.

Lurking somewhere between Bjork and Susanne Vega you'll find the resonant tones of Lisa Hannigan, she who's debut album - See Sew - (nominated here and which graphically bears her knitting patterns) brought to life as an occassional soundtrack to 'Grey's Anatomy'. Which if our memory serves us correctly helped convey The Fray's music to a wider audience via the powers of American TV networks. One-time sidekick of Damien Rice, Hannigan was 'sacked' by the unpredictable Rice when he grew tired of touring and playing the same set, hence the birth of Hannigan in her own right. Speech Debelle champions strings from acoustic guitars, double basses and pianos in her otherwise hip hop and jazz-fused musical arrangements, and draws her inspirations from the mundane of the everyday. Penning lyrically indifferent poetry from a young age, Debelle takes rough street beats and mixes it up with smooth soulful sounds according to critics.

Led Bib, The Invisibles And Sweet Billy Pilgrim Outsiders For 2009 Mercury Music Prize With Internet Bookmakers

Led Bib are described (loosely) as a modern jazz quintet and have received this Mercury plug for their fourth, and current offering entitled, 'Sensible Shoes', while fellow Londoners - art-rock trio The Invisible - are hail from a very strong jazz-fusion background.

Finally, if you like your stripped back token folk sounds washed down with a hefty slug of pretensions, than look no further than Sweet Billy Pilgrim to offer you hope. With this Mercury-nominated album recorded mostly from the confines of a garden shed – and utilizing the unique sound-scape of a tuned dishwasher - at 8 tracks long it might not be considered credit-crunch value for money, but with a distinct air of Talk Talk and The Beach Boys to a few tracks, there's a welcoming familiarity about it nevertheless.

For our money, we'd plump for La Roux, although the bloke-rock in us spares a thought for Kasabian too. However they're far too 'normal' to be in with a chance and unfortunately could never be described as an orange, a spaceship or a spoon.