James Blake wins Mercury Prize

LOST IN TRANSLATION: The Mercury Prize—which tends to be a dramatic annual indicator of the difference between British and American musical tastes, critical and popular alike—was won by James Blake for his avant-garde take on R&B as manifested on his latest LP, Overgrown. He prevailed over some people whose music we’d recognize in David Bowie, Arctic Monkeys, Jake Bugg and Laura Marling, but also Disclosure, Foals, Jon Hopkins, Laura Mvula, Rudimental, Savages and Villagers, whom we’d be unable to name in a blindfold test. In a deliciously ironic moment, presenter Lauren Laverne mistakenly introduced Blake as James Blunt, who’s described in the Telegraph’s coverage as “British music criticism's least loved singer/songwriter.” (11/1a)