Mercurys snap Twigs; Young Fathers victory doesn't really impress

Last night was the Mercury Music Prize. It's now found a home on More4, so let's hope the nominees remembered to offer some tips on redeveloping houses otherwise the regular audience would have been very confused.

This was the shortlist:

Anna Calvi – One Breath
Bombay Bicycle Club – So Long, See You Tomorrow
Damon Albarn – Everyday Robots
East India Youth – Total Strife Forever
FKA twigs – LP1
GoGo Penguin – v2.0
Jungle – Jungle
Kate Tempest – Everybody Down
Nick Mulvey – First Mind
Polar Bear – In Each and Every One
Royal Blood – Royal Blood

A golden year for the shortlist, because it's the first time both penguins and polar bears have been represented, honouring both arctic and antarctic creatures.

But it seemed fairly certain that FKA Twigs would waltz it. I would imagine she'd already ordered a new sofa from DFS expecting the cash prize to be hers.

Except that didn't happen.

Today I will mostly be asking 'WHO THE BLOODY HELL ARE THE YOUNG FATHERS WHEN THEY'RE AT HAME?'

— John Niven (@NivenJ1) October 30, 2014

Yes, Young Fathers won. And the world...?

Who? Ah, of course! *writes down 'Young… Fathers…'*

— Andy Dawson (@profanityswan) October 29, 2014

Who the fuck are the Young Fathers?

— Carl (@RFCCSN) October 30, 2014

Why haven't I heard of Young Fathers before?!

— Kimberley Blythe (@Kimbosss) October 30, 2014

The world wasn't so much surprised as confused.

And then decided that it must have been one of those Mercury years.

Young Fathers wint de Mercury Prize? Really? De nieuwe Speech Debelle http://t.co/UNmvYgKS80

— Atze de Vrieze (@atzedevrieze) October 30, 2014

The one where they give it to a Roni Size or someone to show that it's not just about popularity.

It must suck to be in Young Fathers - "hey, guys, you've made the best album of the year and so everyone's now decided you're Speech Debelle v2.0". They're actually better than that. But that's not going to stop people complaining:

Who has heard of Young Fathers? Best album at Mercury prize. How is that possible when no one has ever heard of them????

— mike taylor™ (@miket_343) October 30, 2014

'How can this possibly be the best album if I've never heard of it' perhaps misses the point of the Mercury, which is supposed to bring under-appreciated albums to wider attention.

Mostly, though, it's been about weak jokes based on the band's name:

#r4today Doesn't "young fathers" seem to encourage underage sex?

— DinoGreycat (@dinogreycat) October 30, 2014