|
 The group itself was ambivalent about the importance of the
award and the 20,000 pounds ($32,270) that comes with it.
"It's just an award show, it's just an award, you know," singer
Alloysius Massaquoi said after getting the prize as a ceremony
in London on Wednesday night.
But Alex Petridis, pop music critic for The Guardian newspaper,
said the choice showed the Mercury Prize was doing its job by
showcasing new music.
"If the Mercury prize has a worthwhile purpose, it's to shine a
light on music that a wider audience might well like if they
heard it, and "Dead" fits the bill perfectly ... the work of
misfits, as all the greatest music tends to be," he wrote in a
blog post.
Some industry figures had complained about the particularly
obscure line-up for this year's award, meant to identify the
best of the year from British or Irish artists and based on a
selection by music industry experts and musicians.
"It's ultimately a subjective thing," said singer-songwriter,
Nick Mulvey, who has been nominated once before, when asked
about the prize's impact.
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"So that tension is one that everyone in and around the award is
living with and working with. And it is unresolvable by its nature
so the debate will always go on," he added.
All of the nominated artists have seen sales boosts, according to
the Official Charts Company - in particular, FKA Twigs, Kate
Tempest, Royal Blood and GoGo Penguin.
But Britain's Telegraph newspaper said the Young Fathers had the
smallest rise in record sales of all the nominees - 561 copies on
top of the 1,825 sold before the nomination was announced, making a
total of 2,386 copies altogether.
Electronic singer songwriter James Blake took last year's prize.
Other recent winners include Alt-J and PJ Harvey.
(Editing by Michael Roddy and Andrew Heavens)
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