The xx - mercury prize winners
The Barclaycard Mercury Prize award ceremony took place last night at Grosvenor House in London, presented by the ever popular musician Jools Holland.
Nominations for the esteemed prize were selected from all musical genres by an independent, possibly slightly pretentious judging panel including musicians, producers, presenters and music journalists.
The Prize recognises and celebrates music in the UK and has a reputation for highlighting a wide range of bands and artists. Albums released between July 2009 and July 2010 were eligible for this year’s Prize.
To be fair the panel’s decision is based solely on the music on the albums and all genres of music are treated equally and of course it is important to include music from all popular genres.
The twelve albums that were nominated for this years award were:
Biffy Clyro - Only Revolutions
Corinne Bailey Rae – The Sea
Dizzee Rascal – Tongue N’ Cheek
Foals – Total Life Forever
I Am Kloot – Sky At Night
Kit Downes Trio - Golden
Laura Marling – I Speak Because I Can
Mumford & Sons – Sigh No More
Paul Weller – Wake Up the Nation
The xx – xx
Villagers – Becoming a Jackal
Wild Beasts - Two Dancers
Following sterling live performances from all of the nominations the judges awarded the 2010 Barclaycard Mercury Prize to The xx for their album xx.
Simon Frith, Chair of Judges commented, “The xx have a unique sense of time and space – urban and enigmatic. The result is a wonderfully atmospheric album – sparse, urgent, hypnotic and powerful.”
