27. Badly Drawn Boy – The Hour Of Bewilderbeast (2000)

Mancunian tea cosy wearer Damon Gough comes bottom of this list for his eye-wateringly boring debut album, which surprisingly won the first Mercury Prize of the new millennium, edging out the commercially successful likes of Leftfield and Coldplay and acclaimed records from The Delgados and Nitin Sawhney, and kicking off a long and uninteresting career of similarly insipid albums that continues to this day.

The Hour Of Bewilderbeast isn’t even bad – in fact, none of the albums that have ever picked up the Mercurys could ever be described as such. Rather, it commits the worse crime of being relentlessly unremarkable, and its success traded off the idea in the popular music press at the time that the male singer-songwriter-with-guitar paradigm is inherently more worthy and authentic than other pop forms. (LISTEN)

26. M People – Elegant Slumming (1994)

A classic example of a completely inexplicable decision from the Mercury judges, M People’s victory in 1994 over Parklife, His N’ Hers and Music For The Jilted Generation gets even more confusing as the years go by and it recedes into the past. Perhaps an early symptom that’s occasionally afflicted the Mercury Prize regarding its identity and purpose, some reckon the judges hadn’t figured out what it should be for yet.

Spearheaded by the maddeningly infectious single ‘Moving On Up’ and Heather Small’s admittedly captivating voice, Elegant Slumming took diverse elements of funk, house, soul and pop and processing them all into a coffee-table friendly record of inoffensive, white-bread, drive-time mundanity. It’s a unit-shifting colossus on a major label, sure, but is simply not what the Mercury Prize has traditionally been about – drawing attention towards exceptional emerging artists. (LISTEN)

25. Klaxons – Myths Of The Near Future (2007)

Hoxton heroes (read hipster chancers) Klaxons rode the crest of a completely confected wave of NME-generated media hype concerning ‘nu-rave’ to one of the most ludicrous Mercury panel decisions in history, as their neon-splattered genre-riot Myths Of The Near Future beat out Amy Winehouse’s heavily-tipped Back To Black in 2007.

Memorable only for frontman James Righton’s heroically pissed acceptance speech and subsequent TV interview as they celebrated a victory even they couldn’t believe they had earned, the music industry soon learned a brutal lesson in hype and bullshit when Klaxons promptly disappeared up their own arses as they faffed around for ages making a rubbish second album. (LISTEN)

24. Speech Debelle – Speech Therapy (2009)

One of the rare instances in which the judges go for the rank outsider, virtually nobody predicted Corynne Elliot would take home the prize in 2009, especially in a field containing an emergent Florence + The Machine, heavily-tipped indie saviours Glasvegas and a majestic second album from Bat For Lashes.

Although it was an album full of insightful and personal lyrics, Speech Therapy didn’t have much going for it in the way of musical innovation, and Speech Debelle was quickly forgotten about in the aftermath of the win. She didn’t even benefit from the added commercial boost and radio exposure that Mercury winners usually enjoy, as the album’s profile remained stubbornly low. (LISTEN)

23. James Blake – Overgrown (2013)

He may now be one of the most sought-after collaborators in the world of pop, but James Blake’s profile was somewhat more obscure back in 2013. Practically nobody expected him to prevail with his second album Overgrown, as most critics noted that it hadn’t broken any new territory from his beloved self-titled debut, which had been nominated in 2011. If he couldn’t win for that, nobody saw Blake getting the nod this time.

And yet, the Mercury judges sprung a complete surprise by giving the grand prize to Overgrown rather than acclaimed big-sellers from Arctic Monkeys, Disclosure and Rudimental. Laura Marling, in particular, must have been left wondering what on earth she had to do to win, having been nominated three times in four albums. Overgrown certainly isn’t a bad album by any stretch of the imagination, but Blake himself has done much better work before and since. (LISTEN)

22. Gomez – Bring It On (1998)

The post-Britpop years were a bit of a wilderness for the British music industry, with a vacuum left in the wake of the sudden decline in guitar music’s fashionability and the absence of anything to replace it. 1998’s winners were the unassuming Southport-based quintet Gomez, with a collection of subtly diverse and occasionally sparkling indie-blues and psychedelic folk.

Containing four songwriters and three vocalists, the languor of Tom Gray and Ian Ball contrasting with the gravelly Ben Ottewell, who sounded more like a grizzled delta-bluesman than a white dude from Lancashire, Bring It On maintains a cult profile to this day despite the declining fortunes of Gomez themselves, with a 20^th anniversary tour of the UK planned for 2018. (LISTEN)

21. Talvin Singh – Ok (1999)

Another one of the occasions where the judging panel opts for the complete outsider, there were some serious eyebrows raised when British-Asian tabla player, producer and soundtrack composer Talvin Singh edged out rock heavyweights like Manic Street Preachers, Blur and Stereophonics, as well as big-beat dance favourites Chemical Brothers and Underworld, to scoop the 1999 Mercury Prize.

However, Singh had been a behind-the-scenes player with great musicians for many years, collaborating with the likes of Björk, Madonna and Siouxsie & The Banshees during the Nineties. Cinematic and brooding in mood, Ok was often engrossing, if hard work to listen to in one go. While it got no higher than no.41 in the charts, it slowly attained Silver certification status and it has aged remarkably well. (LISTEN)

20. Ms. Dynamite – A Little Deeper (2002)

Widely derided and dismissed at the time, Ms. Dynamite’s 2002 win for her debut LP looks more and more like an early blow struck for female British rappers, still a pretty rare occurrence in the industry even 16 years later. Mixing up the demands of hip-hop with jazz instrumentation and soulful acoustic suites, A Little Deeper prevailed in an unusually strong field for British hip-hop, with both Roots Manuva’s Run Come Save Me and The Streets’ Original Pirate Material nominated in the same year. It sounds a little dated now compared to those two albums, but it retains its charm.

As for Dy-Na-Mi-Tee herself, her career wound down in the late Noughties after one more album, as she concentrated on motherhood and raising her family, though she has occasionally put in guest appearances with the likes of Magnetic Man and David Guetta since. We’ll always have that insanely catchy single, though… (LISTEN)

19. Wolf Alice – Visions Of A Life (2018)

The first guitar-based act to win the prize in six years, many were surprised when London quartet Wolf Alice prevailed in 2018 for their sophomore album Visions Of A Life. An enjoyable yet plainly inferior album to their glorious debut My Love Is Cool, which was nominated but lost out in 2015, some bemoaned the choice of the judging panel, opting for an album on a major label subsidiary and which had already been out for pretty much exactly a year already. Many criticised the conservatism of the wider nomination pool too, which included long established artists like Florence & The Machine, Arctic Monkeys and even Noel Gallagher, while younger artists on independent labels missed out.

While valid, these criticisms failed to take into account the understated qualities of Visions Of A Life. Singer Ellie Rowsell was a beguiling yet mature presence, and Wolf Alice themselves had achieved a stateliness that put them well at the front of the pack in British indie. (LISTEN)

18. Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand (2004)

The judging panel went for a pretty conservative and obvious choice in 2004, plumping for Scottish art-rockers Franz Ferdinand and their highly popular self-titled debut in a comparatively weak field of nominees, featuring the likes of Snow Patrol, Keane, Joss Stone and The Zutons.

With visually striking artwork influenced by the Russian Constructivists, and containing similarly angular post-punk and new-wave styled gems, not to mention some massive hit singles, their Mercury win capped a highly eventful and successful 12 months for Franz Ferdinand, having only just released their debut single in September the previous year. (LISTEN)

17. Benjamin Clementine – At Least For Now (2015)

Born in London but moving to Paris as a teen, at one point enduring a period of homelessness and busking on the city’s Metro system, Benjamin Clementine’s story arc is like something from Kerouac. His eclectic and scholarly debut album At Least For Now seemed to draw down on the some of the stardust mythology of that pre-rock’n’roll era, and it was enough for the judges to award him the 2015 Mercury Prize.

An emotional Clementine, who just a few days before had seen his beloved Paris become the victim of co-ordinated terrorist attacks on its streets and the iconic Bataclan music venue, accepted the award and was lost for words. However, his rapier-like singing voice, capable of lonesome croons and guttural scowls, did the talking for him on the night. (LISTEN)

16. Skepta – Konnichiwa (2016)

One of the many points on the graph that signified grime’s official ‘arrival’ into the British pop mainstream was Skepta’s unexpected triumph at the 25^th Mercury Prize, a year in which it was overwhelmingly expected that the late David Bowie would be honoured for his final album Blackstar.

But the Mercury Prize is not, and has never been, about honouring dead rock stars, however legendary they might be, and the judging panel remembered its raison d’etre, stood firm and rightly opted for modernity and youth. Skepta’s potential had long been touted, having been a supporting cast presence in British rap going back most of a decade, but the tough, lean Konnichiwa represented the full blossoming of his talent, as well as the second, commercial renaissance of grime 13 years after Dizzee Rascal’s victory. (LISTEN)

15. Roni Size/Reprazent – New Forms (1997)

Bristol-based drum’n’bass DJ Roni Size’s victory in 1997 surely ranks as the greatest shock in Mercury history. With Radiohead’s critically adored OK Computer, and the globally popular likes of the Spice Girls and The Prodigy in the field, absolutely nobody expected the judges to opt for New Forms, representing a then-still firmly underground genre. Even Size himself looked genuinely surprised as he and his crew walked up to the stage.

But this is exactly what the Mercury Prize does best – acting as a public service, shining a light on great records that have gone underneath the radar of the mainstream. New Forms, an epic in the true sense of the word, has long since served as a gateway for newcomers to drum’n’bass, and its triumph helped the genre gain serious credibility. (LISTEN)

14. Alt-J – An Awesome Wave (2012)

Formed in 2007 at the University of Leeds by English and Fine Art students, the bookish and nerdy aesthetic of Alt-J made them pretty unlikely candidates for chart stars. However, their ‘folktronica’ musical hybridisation of illogical genre partners made them one of the indie sensations of the 2010s, an ascendency epitomised by their debut album An Awesome Wave, which triumphed at the 2012 Mercurys.

Prevailing in a strong field that contained fellow indie stars Django Django and The Maccabees, as well as R&B and soul newcomers like Lianne La Havas and Michael Kiwanuka, Alt-J’s victory was a great example of the Mercury Prize in its occasional ‘star-making’ role, bringing the band to national attention after they had proved themselves through hard work on the nation’s small venue circuit. (LISTEN)

13. Elbow – The Seldom Seen Kid (2008)

Having lost out in 2001 for their brooding but beautiful debut Asleep In The Back, Elbow were outsiders once again for their fourth album The Seldom Seen Kid. 2008 was an incredibly strong field, putting Elbow up against an emergent Adele, a successful Estelle and mainstream heavyweights like Radiohead and Alex Turner’s Last Shadow Puppets, not to mention dubstep producer Burial’s red-hot favourite Untrue.

Packed with big-hearted sing-along anthems of great intelligence and humanity – capped off with the graceful ‘One Day Like This’, which has soundtracked countless inspirational TV segments and sporting montages since – The Seldom Seen Kid was, at long last, a moment of proper recognition for Guy Garvey and co., who had never really gotten the respect or rewards they had deserved in a long career of overlooked greatness and setbacks. A 700% increase in sales followed – an example of a Mercury win actually establishing a band in the mainstream. (LISTEN)

12. Suede – Suede (1993)

Sometimes, the Mercury judges simply have to go for the outstandingly obvious choice and speak with the record-buying public, when faced with a bona-fide commercial sensation. The first such choice to befall the judging panel came in just the second year of the award’s existence in 1993, when the grimy glam-rock of Suede provided a much-needed shot in the arm to a degraded British guitar music scene

While it’s not their best album, it was a cultural watershed, and contained four absolutely magnificent singles and a handful of beautifully poised and expressive show-stoppers, Suede couldn’t possibly be ignored, and proved much too strong for the rest of the nominees, even PJ Harvey’s excoriating Rid Of Me and Stereo MCs’ bafflingly popular Connected. (LISTEN)

11. Sampha – Process (2017)

Sampha Sisay had been marked out as a promising up-and-coming artist for over half a decade, having emerged as one of the prominent guest vocalists on SBTRKT’s debut album way back in 2011, before being approached for collaborations and samples by commercial heavyweights like Drake, Beyonce and Frank Ocean subsequently. A very, very long wait for his first full-length statement was totally worth it, deservedly taking the 2017 Mercury Prize (and winning our Album of the Year, of course!)

Process, written over many years as Sampha cared for his mother who was dying from cancer, perfectly transposed the charm and power of his bedroom-recording style onto the context of the professional recording studio, and made for a deeply moving and soulful experience. Admirably, he avoided the temptation to reciprocate with big-name collaborations for Process, delivering a solitary, meditative suite of electro-soul and piano ballads. (LISTEN)