Elbow wins Britain's Mercury Music Prize

Elbow have won the UK's top critical music prize. The Nationwide Mercury Music Prize award was handed out in a ceremony at Grosvenor House Hotel in London this evening.

“I know we’re supposed to be cool but this is quite literally the best thing that has ever happened to us,” the band’s frontman Guy Garvey said as they collected the 20,000 pound ($35,000) prize. 

The band beat out critical darlings Radiohead, whose album In Rainbows was seen as a heavy favourite for the prize. The Seldom Seen Kid is Elbow's fourth studio album, and was our sleeper pick back in July. The win should give a massive sales boost to a shamefully underappreciated band.

The other albums on the shortlist included:
Adele, 19
British Sea Power, Do You Like Rock Music?
Burial, Untrue
Estelle, Shine
Laura Marling, Alas, I Cannot Swim
Neon Neon, Stainless Style
Portico Quartet, Knee Deep In The North Sea
Rachel Unthank and the Winterset, The Bairns
Radiohead, In Rainbows
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Raising Sand
The Last Shadow Puppets, The Age of the Understatement