Ingénus only? Not this time!

An oft-heard criticism of the Mercury Music prize is that it favours new artists, and maybe that is true, but that doesn't mean that they always prevail and certainly not in 2008...

Manchester's Elbow have been around for about a decade, very impressive without the acclaim that should go with it, but finally their fourth album 'The Seldom Seen Kid' has done them proud and it has, rather against the popular odds, won them the 2008 Mercury Music Prize. It is not deserved on tenacious effort alone, though they certainly have that, and not on sales but simply on its own merit.
While it is special it seems effortlessly so - not only is it the album that so many bands would die to write, they are a band that can also play live as naturally, and I was lucky enough to catch them live earlier this summer.

Elbow live @ Latitude 2008.