The XX Win Mercury Prize

The soundtrack to every bloody TV show and poignant moment of TV news footage, The XX, took out the UK’s Mercury Music Prize in London overnight. Beating off stiff competition from a Laura Marling and Paul Weller who had a late run with the bookies, the atmospheric indie song smiths received a £20,000 cash prize and widespread acclaim across the industry.

Released in August last year, their eponymous debut album demonstrated a great maturity in song writing which seeped its way into the collective conscience – and clearly also impressed the judges of the prize. Songwriter and guitarist Ollie Smith said of receiving the award “We have had the most incredible year and it’s felt like every day we have woken up to something incredible that we were expecting. It’s felt a bit like a haze to us, being here has been a weird moment of clarity. It just means so much.”