Fleet Foxes have won the first Uncut Music Award. They overcame competition from the likes of Elbow, The Raconteurs and Radiohead to win the magazine's inaugural gong, their debut album judged by a panel of industry experts to be the best of the last twelve months. The award was, as previously reported, launched back in August and is a little bit like the Mercury Music Prize except it's open to artists of any nationality.
The US band's frontman Robin Pecknold said: "It's awesome. It's crazy, I never expected to be in contention for this kind of thing. It makes us want to step up our game. I see it as you throwing down the gauntlet - now we have to live up to it. Obviously prizes are not something you should think about or hope for when you're making music. I hope our next album isn't like an awards grab, like the equivalent of a Clint Eastwood movie, y'know, Oscar bait. If we set out to try and win album of the year, we'll end up sounding like Coldplay or something".
One of the judges, Mark Radcliffe said this: "I think it's an extraordinary piece of work, and a worthy first winner of the prize. It's a beautiful vocal creation, a record that seems to have echoes of all kinds of indigenous American music, but also African music and even medieval strains. All the songs on the album are absolutely brilliant, and it just has a magical, ethereal quality".