It’s that time of year again when The Brit Awards reign supreme. Unlike the critics-lead Mercury Music Prize, the Brits tend to follow popularity and sales, both in nominations and the eventual winners.

Here is the full list of nominations for the Brit Awards 2009, along with my choice and my prediction for winner. They very rarely match up. There are few surprises in the list, with Coldplay and Duffy leading the fight with four nominations each. How Scouting For Girls managed three nominations remains a mystery.

British Male Solo Artist

Ian Brown
James Morrison
Paul Weller
The Streets
Will Young

My Choice: Will Young
My Prediction: The Streets

British Female Solo Artist

Adele
Beth Rowley
Duffy
Estelle
M.I.A.

My Choice: Duffy
My Prediction: Adele

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Franz Ferdinand were, for a time, my favorite British band. And then I got over them. Big time. Their self-titled debut album worked a treat, coupling traditional guitar music with a totally new sound that lifted them above similar bands.

They therefore deserved to win the 2004 Mercury Music Prize, and the chart success they had with Take Me Out, The Dark of the Matinée, and This Fire. And then they released their second album and it left me a little cold.

I don’t know why, maybe it was the fact that Franz had been such a breath of fresh air that when the second album sounded similar but not quite as good (in my opinion), it bored me and I moved on to the next big thing.

On to present day and Franz Ferdinand are about to release Tonight: Franz Ferdinand, their third album. They’re promising a new sound so I’ll guess we’ll see if it’s my cup of tea from the first single…

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The Zutons were/are one of my favorite current British bands. I got into them before most people did, before they were nominated for the Mercury Music Prize in 2004. And well before they, or at least their music, crossed over to the mainstream when Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse covered Valerie in 2006.

With so much invested in the band, having seen them live a few times and having bought all their albums, I’m gutted to hear that they’ve been dropped by their record label, Sony BMG.

The split reportedly happened over Christmas after the record label decided poor sales of their third album, You Can Do Anything, were enough of a reason to let them go. Their last single before they were dropped, What’s Your Problem, also failed to make the Top 40 singles chart, which in this day and age is tantamount to a big failure.

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Elbow are a long-standing British group who have kind of passed me by so far, hence I’m only just reviewing this single, One Day Like This, even though it’s been out a few months. I’m sure I’m not alone in only really taking notice of the band after they won the 2008 Mercury Music Prize in September.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve actually been aware of Elbow for years now, partly because they hail from Manchester, where I currently reside, and partly because they have flirted with mainstream success without fully achieving global fame.

The band have been around an incredible 18 years, being started in 1990 by lead singer Guy Garvey and some mates from college. It wasn’t until 1997 that they became Elbow and signed their first record deal, but it was still 10 years before they won the Mercury Music Prize, most often associated with new acts.

Commercial success may always have alluded the band, but their a fan and critic favourite alike. And this single, which reached number 35 in the British charts, shows why so many people love Elbow.

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You may be wondering: Why the hell is he reviewing this song when it’s been out for months? But that’s the thing, it only came out in the US months ago - us Brits have had to wait until now for our chance to buy in to the whole M.I.A. vibe. Which is why Paper Planes is getting reviewed here on Brit Music Scene today.

M.I.A is British, but her look and sound make her a perfect artist to achieve crossover and gain success in the US. Which is exactly what she has done. It’s not as though we’ve ignored her over her in her native UK, as her début album, Arular, was nominated for the prestigious Mercury Music Prize when it was released in 2005.

Her second album, Kala, sent her off on a roller-coaster ride of fame over in the States, with this song hitting high up in the US charts. So it’s time for M.I.A. to come home and see what us Brits think of her new style. Video embed for Paper Planes after the break, along with my review.

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The last Radiohead album, In Rainbows, was not only musically brilliant, but was also a revelation for the way it was released. Radiohead decided to eschew giving the album its début on physical formats, and instead chose to release it on the Internet for free (or as near as damn it).

But that all happened almost a year ago now, with the download being available from October 10th, 2007. In Rainbows has since been released on CD and vinyl, but it’s now time to move on, and the band are already working on their next album. In fact most of it is already complete.

After losing the Nationwide Mercury Music Prize to Elbow last week, Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien spoke to BBC 6Music about the band’s forthcoming plans. According to the NME, he said:

“We’re still talking about doing some stuff and we’re really excited about it. First we came off tour to do some writing and we wanted to carry on doing it because it was so brilliant.”

Modest as ever, but it’s great news for Radiohead fans everywhere that a new album is already in the offing. If it’s already at that stage of completion, then I’d guess a 2009 release was on the cards. The only question left is whether the In Rainbows model will be used again, or will the follow-up see a much more traditional release?

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I love America, and the majority of the American people I have met both online and in real life. But, when I hear a story such as this, I can’t help but lose a bit of respect for the country and its inhabitants.

Chasing Pavements by Adele is an absolutely brilliant song, and deserves to be listened to by as many people as possible. It was her second single, but was the one which brought her to public recognition. And deservedly so, as both the song and video are fantastic.

But there was a slight problem over in the States with this song, namely that it was thought to be about turning gay, which it clearly isn’t. While most of us wouldn’t have a problem with a song about being gay, some US radio stations actually refused to play the song for that very reason.

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Elbow have won the 2008 Nationwide Mercury Music Prize, beating the likes of Radiohead, Adele, Estelle, and bookies favourite Burial. The Manchester band won the annual music industry award for their fourth album, The Seldom Seen Kid.

The prize was contested by 12 of the best of British acts from this year, all of whom were considered to have released the best albums from the past 12 months. The nominees were announced back in July, when I expressed my desire for Radiohead to win for In Rainbows. But it wasn’t to be.

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The Young Knives are a British band who are unlikely to ever cross over to the mainstream, but are brilliant nonetheless, or maybe even because of this. They are classy, kooky, and more than anything, just downright fantastic.

They’ve been around in their current form since 2002, but have been getting increasingly more attention from the press and public since then. In 2007, they were one of the bands nominated for the Mercury Music Prize for Voices of Animals and Men.

Their new album, released on March 10th 2008, is called Superabundance, and received some brilliant reviews in the mainstream music press. None of the singles from the album have so far managed to make it in to the top 40, but maybe this, their new single, will change all that.

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Estelle was riding high in the US charts with her album Shine, and the best-selling single from it, American Boy, and her career seemed to be heading in just one direction: up. Then her record company, Warner Music, decided to remove her material from Apple iTunes, and it’s all gone horribly wrong.

The short-sightedness of record companies continues to astound me. They are wholly failing to embrace the Internet and the related technologies that are changing the face of music distribution. This unwillingness to evolve is now affecting one British artist directly and unequivocally.

American Boy has been a huge hit all around the world, and transformed Estelle from a struggling artist to a diva who is loved on both sides of the Atlantic. The single was sitting at number 11 in the US Billboard charts before Warner decided to remove it from iTunes. It then fell to number 37.

They also did the same to the Album it came from, Shine, which has been nominated for the 2008 Mercury Music Prize. Shine had peaked at number 39 on the US Billboard before plummeting to number 159 when it was removed in its entirety from market leader Apple iTunes.

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