Mercury Prize Goes to Alt-J

This year's prestigious Barclaycard Mercury Prize went to the indie-pop quartet Alt-J, whose debut album “An Awesome Wave” (Infectious Music) won praise from critics for the idiosyncratic structure of its songs, the BBC reported.

The band won out on Thursday over several more established acts for the prize, which is worth £20,000 (about $32,000), among them the rapper Plan B, the band Django Django, the retro-soul singer Jessie Ware and the singer-songwriter Richard Hawley. Others nominees included Michael Kiwanuka, Ben Howard and Lianne La Havas.

The Mercury Prize was established in 1992 to honor the best album each year by a British or Irish band. It often goes to eclectic and obscure groups.

Alt-J - named after a computer keyboard command - was formed by four students at the University of Leeds in 2007. The band is known for sharp, nasal, minimal vocals and its sometimes bizarre, confessional lyrics. The group draws on a smorgasbord of genre s and sounds, from trip-hop to folk. Among the popular tracks from the album are “Breezeblocks” and “Fitzpleasure.”

“The Mercury Awards puts us in the hall of fame for sure, because it's such a well respected award,” the group's frontman, Joe Newman, told the BBC.