Last night, Young Fathers won the Scottish Album of the Year Award 2018 (held in Paisley Town Hall) for their celebrated fifth album, Cocoa Sugar, scooping the \u00a320,000 first prize. Their sound at once lush, sparse, \u2018jaggy\u2019, deep and soulful is totally unique and utterly arresting. Tracks range from the quasi-religious lyrics and soaring choir on \u2018Lord\u2019 to the dark and quite frankly difficult to listen to \u2018Wow\u2019 with its droning, scratchy intro followed by the darkly ironic lyrics, \u201cWow. What a time to be alive. I\u2019m gonna put myself first.\u201d<\/p>\n
Band member, Alloysious Massaquoi was ecstatic, saying \u201cWe want to thank everyone who voted, it\u2019s fantastic for Scotland and diversity in music. This is a total surprise and an honour for us to win it twice and make history. We are obviously a multi-racial group who stand for openness, kindness, and love.\u201d<\/p>\n
Formed in Edinburgh in 2008 by Alloysious Massaquoi, Kayus Bankole and Graham ‘G’ Hastings in 2012, they released their introductory mixtapes, \u2018Tape One\u2019 and \u2018Tape Two\u2019. The trio then signed to Big Dada and released debut album, \u2018Dead\u2019, in 2014, which won the prestigious Mercury Music Awards. Following an extensive world tour the band begin work on their sophomore album, \u2018White Men Are Black Men Too\u2019, which was released in 2015. Their album, \u2018Tape Two\u2019 won the Scottish Album of The Year in 2014 and four years later the band now add their third studio album, \u2018Cocoa Sugar\u2019, to their repertoire.<\/p>\n
The band once described as a \u201cLiberian\/Nigerian\/Scottish psychedelic hip-hop electro boy band\u201d saw off competition from Mogwai\u2019s \u2018Every Country\u2019s Sun, Siobhan Wilson\u2019s \u2018There Are No Saints\u2019, Best Girl Athlete\u2019s album of the same name and Franz Ferdinand\u2019s \u2018Always Ascending\u2019 which won the public vote and is indeed pretty fantastic. Excluding the winners, nine bands made up the shortlist. They were:<\/p>\n
BABE – \u2018Kiss & Tell\u2019
\nBest Girl Athlete – \u2018Best Girl Athlete\u2019
\nFranz Ferdinand – \u2018Always Ascending\u2019 (Public vote winner)
\nGolden Teacher – \u2018No Luscious Life\u2019
\nKarine Polwart With Pippa Murphy – ‘A Pocket Of Wind Resistance\u2019
\nKobi Onyame – \u2018Gold\u2019
\nMogwai – \u2018Every Country\u2019s Sun\u2019
\nOut Lines – \u2018Conflats\u2019
\nSiobhan Wilson – \u2018There Are No Saints\u2019<\/p>\n
It\u2019s worth checking out the longlist too on the SAY Awards 2018 website. Favourites here at INSIGHT HQ are Adam Holms and the Embers \u2013 \u2018Midnight Milk\u2019 and Catholic Action\u2019s \u2018In Memory Of\u2019. We also greatly enjoyed Megan Airlie, a singer songwriter from East Kilbride. With echoes of Florence + The Machine, her timeless, bluesy sound was captivating. She’s our hot tip for next year.\u00a0 Watch this space! All in all a great night for the Scottish music scene.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last night, Young Fathers won the Scottish Album of the Year Award 2018 (held in Paisley Town Hall) for their celebrated fifth album, Cocoa Sugar, scooping the \u00a320,000 first prize. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":391,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.advertizer.co.uk\/insight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Young-Fathers_SAY-2018-Winners_003-WEB.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n