English Teacher have won the Mercury Prize, honoring the best British or Irish album of the year, for This Could Be Texas. To win the award, the Leeds band beat out Charli XCX, Beth Gibbons, Nia Archives, Berwyn, the Last Dinner Party, Barry Can’t Swim, Corinne Bailey Rae, Cat Burns, CMAT, Ghetts, and Corto.Alto. For the first time in the award’s 32-year history, there was no public ceremony, due to a lack of sponsorship, but judges praised the album’s surrealism, social observation, and subtly inventive composition. The band took home a prize of £25,000—roughly $33,000.
Last year’s Mercury Prize winners were Ezra Collective, the first jazz act to win the award.
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