Who goes to the top? You decide ... Mercury nominees Hard-Fi, Bloc Party, Kaiser Chiefs
and M.I.A. Photographs: Yui Mok/PA; Jim Dyson/Getty Images
Arts prizes are all about argument: there wouldn't be much point in awarding them if there was a genuine consensus about what was best, and certainly zero suspense.
On this basis, the Mercury music prize must qualify as one of the best around, since it covers such a divisively vast spectrum.
From stadium-rocking anthem-mongers to obscure avant-gardists, the prize has in the past lumped together such plainly incommensurable artists as John Tavener and Simply Red - so the emergence of a clear winner is about as likely as Peter Maxwell Davies recording a grime mix of his Atlantic symphony. In the meantime, wielding our aesthetic preferences like clubs, we can all enjoy a good ding-dong.
The august cultural connoisseurs at William Hill reckon this race belongs to the Kaiser Chiefs. Others suggest it could be M.I.A.'s day. But at the end of the award ceremony, however little legitimacy they command, there can only be one winner. Or can there?
In a world of uncertain aesthetic values, it seems like a good idea to launch a parallel award, and you are hereby elected as a juror.
In order to have some hope of getting our own (highly arguable if not entirely arbitrary) winner, we may as well use the same shortlist. You need to make two votes: one for the album you think WILL win, the other for the one which SHOULD. (For full details of the runners and riders, check out our special report.)
The Nationwide Mercury music prize offers a purse of £20,000 to the winner. The Culture Vulture Mercury Music Prize - awarded by what are universally acknowledged to be the most discerning readers in cyberspace - can confer only £20,000-worth of kudos.
William Hill may disagree, but I reckon that makes us clearly the most culturally significant, not to mention fearless and hugely important award around. To the hustings!
