Last night the annual Mercury Music Prize was handed out, with South London natives The XX picking up the award for their superb eponymous debut album.
The band were bookies favourites for the majority of the time since the shortlist was announced in July. However, fellow nominee Paul Weller's odds improved massively in the few days before the announcement, due to a seemingly bizarre surge in betting over the weekend.
While The XX's win may not come as much of a surprise, we at MusicRadar are pleased to see them scoop the title. With its simple-but-effective guitars, neat drum machine work and gorgeous production tone, their album was easily one of our favourites of last year. Check out the clips below to hear a few of our favourite bits of their work to date.
The band accepted the award as a trio last night, although at the time of its release the act - who are all alumni of the same South London school as Hot Chip, Burial and Four Tet - were performing as a four piece. Despite having worked with producers such as Diplo in the past, the record was producer and mixed by the band themselves.
The award, which comes with a £20,000 prize, has been won in the past by the likes of Portishead, Dizzee Rascal, Klaxons, Roni Size and, err… M People. Other nominees this year included Weller, Wild Beast (whose album we also highly recommend), Oxford indie band Foals, Scottish rockers Biffy Clyro and Manchester band I Am Kloot.
The win is also a nice little triumph for Young Turks, the independent label that released The XX's album, and an imprint that certainly deserves a bit of attention for their good work.
