The Nationwide Mercury Prize likes to set great store by its high-minded objectivity. Its website loudly trumpets that "the music on the album is the only thing that counts".

Nevertheless, it's hard not to think that the tabloid furore surrounding Amy Winehouse's personal life might have had some bearing upon the failure of her album Back To Black to clinch the prize.

No wonder even Klaxons looked pretty gobsmacked by the result. But Myths Of The Near Future is a fantastic debut album. On its release, many of the reviews concentrated on the jokey name the trio had given to their sound, which they dubbed "new rave".

A lot of column inches were expended on discussing the fact that its blend of distorted guitars, euphoric tunes and baffling lyrics - "at Club 18-30 I met Julius Caesar, Lady Diana and Mother Teresa", offers Totem On the Timeline - bore almost no relation whatsoever to old rave, the dance music that briefly held sway over British youth in the early 90s.

The arguments tended to obscure Myths Of The Near Future's accomplished contents, which blend effortless songwriting nous - single Golden Skans has the kind of indelible melody that explains its omnipresence on radio and TV nine months after its release - with a cheering degree of sonic experimentation and a distinctly British psychedelic skew. An awards ceremony once famed for invariably getting it wrong seems to have made another smart decision.