Speaking to The Times just half an hour before Elbow won this year’s Nationwide Mercury Music Prize for The Seldom Seen Kid, their singer Guy Garvey confided his planned celebration. “There’s this pair of binoculars I’ve seen – second-hand, right? – and they cost a grand.” It’s probably fair to say that this is the first time a dedicated birdwatcher has made off with the £20,000 winning cheque.

What’s even more improbable is that the Mercury should still matter so much after all these years. Album sales are lower than ever. And yet the power of this supposedly outdated format to mobilize huge emotions was well evidenced by the Mexican wave of delight that resounded across the floor when the Manchester-based quintet name was announced.

For the jury – clearly visible in a dark corner of the Grosvenor ballroom feverishly debating the eventual outcome – it was a job not undertaken lightly. At least half a dozen of the performers present last night had a cast iron case for victory: Radiohead for finding yet more secret rooms in the crumbling old pile known as pop music, and releasing it in a revolutionary way; Burial for sculpting a breathtaking new dubstep soundtrack which transcends the south London streets that inspired it; the preternaturally talented Laura Marling, who delivered a spellbinding performance of Night Terror on the evening.

But, when the final votes were cast, recognition was the criterion that swung it. Over the years, Radiohead have had no shortage of the stuff, and several of the newer artists will surely get plenty in the coming years. Among them, it’s a miracle that

Elbow survived long enough to make the fourth album of their chequered 17 year history. Their backstory – dropped by two previous labels; frontman Guy Garvey’s messy break-up with Radio 1 DJ Edith Bowman – tugs at the heartstrings. And yet, it’s a mere comic strip compared to the slo-mo emotional journey mapped out by the songs on The Seldom Seen Kid: from the title track, written in tribute to deceased Manchester songwriter Bryan Glancy, to the lovestruck intoxication of One Day Like This.

“So throw those curtains wide,” sings Guy Garvey on the latter song, “One day like this a year would see me right.” His words, it turned out, were remarkably prescient. “This is quite literally the best thing that’s ever happened to us,” Garvey told the throng. Having delivered an album of such irrefutable beauty, it was really the only thing that could have happened to them last night.

Explore Music

• CD Reviews

• Live Reviews

• Classical

Editor's choice

• The 100 Best Films of the Decade
• 70 facts you didn't know about Marvel
• The 50 Biggest Movies Of 2010