Mercury Know Their Arse From Their Elbow

"This is quite literally the best thing that's ever happened to us".

So... a band who created one of my top ten favourite songs of all time, has won the 2008 Mercury Music Prize in the UK, something that pleases me greatly.

A band and lyricist who have never quite made their mark on the mainstream, Elbow have finally received some sort of recognition with their fourth album The Seldom Seen Kid.

Guy Garvey is one of the best lyricists of his generation, Elbow are one of my favourite bands (something that I get quite a lot of aggravation for) and with songs such as Starlings, Mirrorball, Grounds For Divorce, The Fix and One Day Like This, Seldom is a deserved winner.

However, in my opinion it's not their best. That accolade would go to Leaders Of The Free World. Released in 2005, it features the song which I mentioned previously, a song called Puncture Repair.

Elbow - Puncture Repair (Zshare)

Burial's Untrue was the bookies favourite, and with half of the commentators not even caring to notice he had actually unveiled himself to be a a guy from South London called Will Bevan to prevent a UK tabloid from doing it for him, he didn't even turn up for the ceremony.

I'd have been almost as pleased if he had been victorious, though in an ideal world he'd have won it last year with his self-titled debut album, which wasn't even nominated.

Third choice would have been Laura Marling with a remarkable debut in Alas, I Cannot Swim.

Well done Mercury.