James Blake wins Mercury Prize 2013
James Blake has won the Barclaycard Mercury Prize 2013 for his album Overgrown.
The award for album of the year was made by Lauren Laverne at a packed Mercury Prize event at the Roundhouse in Camden on Wednesday night.
Overgrown is the second album by the 24-year-old Londoner. The album was self-produced and features contributions from Brian Eno on ‘Digital Lion’ and Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA on ‘Take a Fall For Me’.
The album was released in April 2013 and debuted at number eight in the UK album charts.
At the start of the night Laura Mvula was the favourite, with bookmakers making the 27-year-old odds-on to win the £20,000 prize.
Her debut album, Sing to the Moon, was released in March 2013 and peaked at number nine in the charts.
Earlier this week Channel 4 News caught up with Laura Mvula, who talked about her meteoric rise, and how she creates her “music from the heart”.
Amongst a crowd of young musicians, including the youngest nominee at 19-years-old – Jake Bugg, David Bowie, 66, stood out.
Bowie’s album, The Next Day, was released in March 2013. It was his first new material in ten years. In 2002 he released Reality, which was also nominated for the Mercury Prize that year, but which was defeated by Miss Dynamite.
Read more: Culture and Digital Editor Paul Mason asks "is there any future for albums?"
The competition had a slightly mainstream feel this year, with four albums that had made it to number one included in the shortlist.
There were 12 albums shortlisted for the Mercury Prize 2013. They were:
Arctic Monkeys – AM
David Bowie – Next Day
Disclosure – Settle
Foals – Holy Fire
Jake Bugg – Jake Bugg
James Blake – Overgrown
Jon Hopkins – Immunity
Laura Marling – Once I Was An Eagle
Laura Mvula – Sing to the Moon
Rudimental – Home
Savages – Silence Yourself
Villagers – Awayland