The Shortlist Music Prize is awarded to the most original and creative album release of the year that is below “gold” status in the recording industry (has sold fewer than 500,000 copies) as picked by a panel of fellow musicians. In its four year existence the award has been handed to up-and-coming acts N*E*R*D, Sigur Ros, Damien Rice, and in 2004 was awarded to the NYC act TV On the Radio for their album Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes, completely deserving.

With a sound years ahead of its time TV On the Radio combines an odd but fitting mixture of jazz, soul, doo-wop, ambient rock and everything else under the electronic sun, each song with its own unique sound and mix of instrumentation.

The vast extent of their creative abilities can all be summed up through three songs on the album: the chugging sax/electronic mix of “Wrong Way,” the regretful sounds of “Dreams,” and the sad/beautiful doo-wop a cappella “Ambulance,” a smooth, bittersweet love song loaded to the brim with incredibly relevant metaphors for the desperate feelings that come strapped along with modern love. An excerpt: “I will be your accident if you will be my ambulance/ I will be your screech and crash if you will be my crutch and cast/ I will be your one more time if you will be my one last chance/ Oh fall for me.”

This album, though some songs may not be worthy enough to have made the final cut, nevertheless, displays intriguing takes on rascism, stereotypes, capital punishment, and of course good old-fashioned heartache. The album also thickly hints at the potential of this finely gathered trio for their releases yet to come. If the radio can learn to accept Modest Mouse, no doubt these guys have a chance to break out.