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Tom Ravenscroft is celebrating the Mercury Prize on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Radio 6 Music, playing tracks and sessions from this year’s shortlisted Albums of the Year, and revealing the 2020 winner on Thurs 24 September from 7pm.

On ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Sounds, you can go behind-the-scenes with former Mercury Prize winners PJ Harvey, The xx, Primal Scream and Franz Ferdinand by finding out how they made their award-winning albums. Take a listen to the 6 Music documentaries below.

Elsewhere on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Four, Lauren Laverne brings you performances from the 2020 shortlist (Weds 23 Sept), and Jools Holland will be hearing from this year’s winner on Later… (Fri 25 Sept).

Ahead of the 2020 Mercury Prize reveal, we’re taking a look back at some of the finest winners and shortlisted albums from years gone by, in alphabetical order…

Winner, 2012

Inventive introverts alt-J saw their career go skywards thanks to a Mercury Prize win. Picking up the award for debut album ‘An Awesome Wave’, they thanked their parents “for not making us get jobs”, a just reward for the years spent tweaking their idiosyncratic, odd-pop sound after forming at Leeds University.

‘An Awesome Wave’ sounds like no Mercury winner before or since. The wonky choral chants of ‘Fitzpleasure’, the finger-picked melodrama of ‘Tessellate’, the helium-swallowed delivery of vocalist Joe Newman – these are distinctive components that, when combined, put a truly experimental pulse in the band’s surprisingly chart-friendly pop. If the Mercury Prize is designed to reward risk takers, alt-J are up there with some of the most worthy winners.

Shortlisted, 2008

‘Untrue’, the second record from formerly anonymous, perpetually enigmatic producer Burial, is an album that - even 13 years on - sounds like a melting pot of modern London. It has nods to the capital’s rich heritage of electronic music by bringing in elements of UK garage, jungle and the murky brand of bass music that would later be tagged as dubstep, but still feels fresh and exhilarating as upon its initial 2007 release.

The album’s 13 songs drift in and out like a lucid daydream - obscure sounds murmur, beats ricochet, and clipped vocals chime in and out. Ultimately, listening to the album feels exactly as its creator intended, like the soundtrack for your trek home from a heavy night. "It's more about when you come back from being out somewhere; in a minicab or a night bus, or with someone, or walking home across London late at night, dreamlike, and you've still got the music kind of echoing in you, in your bloodstream, but with real life trying to get in the way,” Burial at the time. “I want it to be like a little sanctuary. It's like that 24-hour stand selling tea on a rainy night, glowing in the dark."

Shortlisted, 2013

It's easy for artists to be weighed down by their past, and you can only imagine the pressure to live up to former glories when your back-catalogue is as vast and glittering as someone like David Bowie. 2013's 'The Next Day' was his first album in 10 years and was the result of a long, painstaking recording process in secretive sessions laid out over a two-year period.

On the album, Bowie opted against needless radical reinvention in favour of a record that not only mined sounds from the entirety of his discography, but also reflected upon his career, personal life and mortality, while still moving his art forward. Even its cover sleeve wryly reworks his classic 'Heroes' artwork from 1977, in a move that only David Bowie could pull off. What we're left with is a colossal album that isn't only a late-career high for Bowie but feels like an all-encompassing masterpiece too.

Shortlisted, 2014

Announcing FKA twigs as a singular talent, ‘LP1’ sets out the London artist’s stall for futuristic production, gurgling synths and distorted beats. Her first work arrived in a storm of anticipation, months after being tipped as part of the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ’s Sound of 2014. And it fully lived up to expectations, merging the experimental edge of her two introductory EPs (‘EP1’ and ‘EP2’) with a pop sensibility.

Six years on, what sounded forward-thinking at the time still holds up: ‘Lights On’ sees a warped RnB hook get bent and twisted out of all recognition; ‘Two Weeks’ has heady vocal takes tying themselves in knots; ‘Video Girl’ is a lushly-arranged piece of melodrama. If released today, these songs would still feel cutting-edge.

‘LP1’ also formed a blueprint for an equally dazzling follow-up, 2019’s ‘Magdalene’, which again matched twigs’ masterful production with an evolutionary approach to visuals.

Shortlisted, 2014

Hitting play on Kae Tempest’s ‘Everybody Down’ is like opening a new book, only to be thrown headfirst into its central scene. ‘Marshall Law’ kicks off the record with jagged drum patterns and gurgling synths, as Tempest wastes no time in introducing the listener to Becky, the character whom ‘Everybody Down’ is largely based around. Becky’s at an industry party full of “slimeballs” and strangers with a “hyphenated second name”, and from there, Tempest manages to enrich seemingly mundane encounters with vivid warts ‘n all detail and an observational eye that sees things from all perspectives.

This is Tempest’s finest strength; their ability to pick apart the tiny details of chance meetings, glances between strangers, secrets kept amongst friends. It’s a craft they continue to evolve – not least on 2019’s sprawling, beautiful ‘The Book of Traps and Lessons’ – but ‘Everybody Down’ marked the moment they were truly given the spotlight they deserved.

Shortlisted, 2016

Four years after winning ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Sound of 2012, and scoring a Top 10 album with vintage-dusted debut ‘³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Again’, Michael Kiwanuka suddenly emerged as an artist who’d found his true identity. The Inflo-produced ‘Love & Hate’ found Kiwanuka more enlivened, well-worn and willing to tackle difficult subjects with conviction, not least on lead single ‘Black Man In A White World’, which masterfully related the experience of touring his music to predominantly white audiences.

His reputation skyrocketed on the back of ‘Love & Hate’; in-part thanks to the track ‘Cold Little Heart’ soundtracking Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman-starring drama ‘Big Little Lies’, but also because of the sheer musical heights he was now scaling, and the honesty contained within his soul-searching lyrics.

‘Cold Little Heart’ is in itself a 10-minute epic, and it takes serious guts to open a record with something so grand and sprawling. It’s a reminder that the Mercury Prize rewards risk-taking and progression at every stage of an artist’s career. Fast-forward and 2020 sees Michael Kiwanuka again nominated for the Mercury Prize, this time for 2019's equally sublime 'Kiwanuka'.

Winner, 2001

PJ Harvey remains the only musician to win the Mercury Prize twice, although she could be mistaken for two entirely different artists, such are the differences between 2001 winner ‘Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea’ and 2011 victor ‘Let England Shake’. Her sound evolves dramatically between records, but one consistency is her ability to provoke and draw shock and awe in equal measure, be it via the punk-fuelled abrasiveness of 1993’s ‘Rid Of Me’, or the well-travelled warning shots of 2016’s ‘The Hope Six Demolition Project’.

On the surface, ‘Stories From The City…’ is arguably PJ Harvey at her most palatable, conversing in skyscraper-ready, reverb-drenched guitars and showy rock melodies. “I want absolute beauty”, she told Q Magazine in 2001, albeit “pop according to PJ Harvey, which is probably as un-pop as you can get according to most people's standards.”

In those terms, it was mission accomplished. Songs like ‘A Place Called ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ’ are lushly-produced and comforting, while the sombre ‘This Mess We’re In’ sees her trade blows with bucket list guest vocalist Thom Yorke. But there are also moments of wild abandon, like the raw ‘Kamikaze’ and the grit-lined commotion of ‘The Whores Hustle And The Hustlers Whore’. It is a singular work in her back-catalogue, a moment when she took on traditional rock tropes with her own extraordinary vision.

Winner, 1995

Whatever you do, don’t call Portishead’s ‘Dummy’ background music, or something to chill out to. In fact, if Beth Gibbons, Geoff Barrow and Adrian Utley had their way, their game-changing first work would be prescribed only on the condition it was played at full blast, with no strangers clinking wine glasses or serving fancy starter dishes. found Barrow and Utley comparing their debut to Nirvana – not the trip-hop style of the time, or a post-rave relaxation session.

There’s justified reason for this: The louder ‘Dummy’ is played, the more the ghoulish guitars, deck-scratches, sub-bass and unorthodox chord changes make sense as a deep, unsettling whole.

Gibbons’ voice is the great calling card, and her reluctance to do interviews around the record – or since – only adds to the mystery around her lyrics, be it confrontational (“Take a ride, take a shot now” on ‘Sour Times’), or the desperate cries of ‘Glory Box’: “Give me a reason to love you.”

There’s too much contained on ‘Dummy’, too much to unpick, for it to simply sound pretty in the background.

Winner, 1997

1997's Mercury Prize winners Roni Size & Reprazent were far from favourites to pick up the accolade that year. After all, they were up against records by Radiohead, The Prodigy, Spice Girls and more. Even the drum & bass group's leader didn't hold up much hope, later stating that they only attended out of obligation and for the hospitality. Roni Size : "We were so tired, we moaned all the way to the ceremony, and just scoffed all the free food and alcohol."

With 'New Forms', the group wanted "to make music that sounded like the future" and used the record as a melting pot of influences from all corners of the 90s rave scene. "We’d go to raves, recreate the parts we liked, then use them to build our own music, which could be drum & bass, breakbeats, soca, jazz. I sampled everything from James Brown to Everything But the Girl and put all this into 'New Forms'," Size later explained. Two decades on and the album still sounds as breathtaking and ground-breaking.

Shortlisted, 2002

The Streets' seminal 'Original Pirate Material' was an album that was so unapologetically British at a time when UK hip-hop didn't quite hold the esteem that it does today. With the debut release, Brummie MC Mike Skinner said he wanted "to be someone who was on the one hand very English, but at the same time a bit like Nas, and could come up with these cool-sounding couplets".

'Original Pirate Material' more than manages that: Skinner's verses are tightly written and wholly engaging, while you'll find it hard to pinpoint an album that's as real and hilarious as these tales of big night-outs, painful morning afters and the odd bit of dodgy love advice. It defined a whole era of British music.

Winner, 2010

While working on what would become their self-titled debut album, The xx booked in sessions with a series of respected and hyped producers such as Diplo and Kwes, but quickly found that their music was stronger when there was no external stamp put upon it. As audio engineer Rodaidh McDonald would later explain about their early demos: "There was a lot of empty space in The xx's music... But we just found that the best stuff was the most sparse."

Sparseness is at the heart of The xx's debut and it's put to great and devastating effect. From the hypnotising opening arpeggio guitar on 'Intro' to the skeletal drums of 'Crystallised' and the constant back-and-forth of hushed vocal delivery from co-leads Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim, you are made to focus and listen, and frequently find yourself lost in a cloud of reverb or the odd plucked bass line. It's expertly delivered and masterful stuff.

• Find out the story behind The xx's 'xx' in a 6 Music documentary

Winner, 2014

Young Fathers' debut is a gripping and dizzying listen. At almost every turn, you have no idea what to expect next. One minute, a song opens with electro-tinged bagpipes, the next minute some crunchy beats are introduced before the tension is let up momentarily for a soulful singalong chorus (all this alone happens on opener 'No Way'). Elsewhere they fuse elements of spoken-word, avant-garde hip-hop and hard electro in a way that feels seamless and entirely unique.

Lauren Laverne says: "It’s Edinburgh’s best boyband, Young Fathers. They won the Mercury Prize in 2014 with this, their official debut ‘DEAD’. They’d released mixtapes in the past, but this was their first big release. It was a really strong shortlist that year: Damon Albarn, FKA twigs, Bombay Bicycle Club, Anna Calvi all up for the prize – but they scooped it. Their most recent record ‘Cocoa Sugar’ came out in 2018, so I’m crossing my fingers for some new music from them at some point.”

• Listen on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Sounds for live Mercury Prize coverage and playlists curated by this year's nominees