After thousands of Xfm listeners voted for their favourite UK debut album of the past year, ten finalists were judged by a panel of musicians and industry experts. Finally the xx’s self titled album was chosen to receive the coveted Xfm New Music Award.
The xx beat out other bands and artists such as Florence and The Machine, La Roux, Mumford And Sons and White Lies to take home the 3rd annual award.
Oliver Sim from The xx said: “It’s a big honour. We’re on tour with Florence at the moment and I’m a huge fan of hers and I’d seen the people that we were up against. There’s going to be a big celebration, it’s a huge honour.” Speaking about the album, Oliver admitted, “We did this album for ourselves. We wrote these songs thinking no-one else would hear them.”
This year’s judging panel included Xfm’s Dave Berry, John Kennedy and Clint Boon, as well as Carl Barat from Dirty Pretty Things/The Libertines, Tom Smith from Editors, The Charlatans’ Tim Burgess, plus Tom Clarke, lead singer of The Enemy, who won Xfm’s first ever New Music Award for 2007.
Tom Smith of Editors, who was on the judging panel, said: “It’s true originality, something you’ve not really heard before, it’s not linked to sales, it’s not linked to critical acclaim, it’s something you’ll come back to again and again and again. For whatever reason, they’re resonating with critics and fans, which is good.”
Tom Clarke of The Enemy had cast his vote for Florence and the Machine, he explained: “I came down here to go all out for Florence, because she owned 2009. But I think the right decision was probably reached. It’s not the obvious one. That was the bit that swung it for me, the moment that John Leckie mentioned the record had soul. Because most people in the room and most people that buy music would want their record to be real. Florence is amazing and has had so many big tunes this year, but she’ll probably win absolutely everything else anyway.”