Arcade Fire wins 2011 Polaris Music Prize

By Alex Young on September 19th, 2011 in News

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And the accolades keep on coming for Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs. Having already earned Album of the Year at the 2011 Grammy Awards, Best International Album at the 2011 BRIT Awards, and Album of the Year at the 2011 Juno Awards, the band’s third LP was just awarded this year’s Polaris Music Prize. The annual prize, which honors the best album from Canada, is selected by a small jury of music journalists, bloggers, and broadcasters.

Their first-ever Polaris Music Prize win, Arcade Fire beat out such formidable candidates as Destoryer, The Weeknd, Austra, and Colin Stetson. Along with bragging rights, Win Butler and co. also receive a $30,000 cash prize.

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  • willllllllll

    Well.
    Honestly I thought Braids would snag this one, they had a great album in Native Speaker.  
    The Polaris has a habit of throwing out surprises though, and despite AF being the one big name on here, I am somewhat surprised that they did so.
    Regardless, almost every album in this list is really great, and symbolic of the strength of Canadian music at this time.

  • Stefan

    You have my favorite usermane, you won before even any of the other usernames were even announced.

    Which btw, I’m glad to see I am dealing with your very unbiased opinion here. Good god you Arcade’s Fires superfans!

  • J!

    No question Arcade Fire wins this… that was given when they announced the list! I was rooting for Destroyer… but this was a given! And well deserved!

    • Stefan

      I’ve been plenty vocal about tons of good shit this year. In fact, I feel 2011 has been one of the best years in music in a long looooong time. For one thing I’ve never seen so many past artists come back to such stellar form all at once, REM, They Might Be Giants, Paul Simon (this guy never lost it), Primus, Gord Pollard’s Boston Spaceships and The Decemberists are all easy album of the year nominations. Plus we still have new albums coming from Tom Waits (Fuck yeah!), Feist, Wilco and The “motherfuckin’” Residents. What a year! (Never mind LCD Soundsystem’s jar dropping farewell show, Tom Waits inducted into the RARHOF, and the explosion of the festival circuit)

      Newer (I say this somewhat liberally now) artists like St. Vincent, Destroyer, The Drive By Truckers, Nicholas Jarr, Man Man, The Perfect Vessels, Panda Bear and The Antlers have all put out career albums this year (that are good albums who all transcend just being good for the year 2011. Man Man’s Life Fantastic is something else!). I love music both new and old. It’s called discernible taste people, and you who love The Arcade Fires and The Blink 182′s don’t have it.  

      Being Canadian I enjoy the Polaris Awards and in the past they have been very good at acknowledging true talant that often isn’t even mentioned elsewhere. But giving The Arcade Fires the award just feels like such a cop out. No way a committee that gives an award to Caribou and Final Fantasy can all of a sudden put those dipshits in the same artistic catagory. Uhg.

      Bottom line, you guys just have shitty mainstream taste and choose to live a musically unexamined life, thus all you see are my comments when they pertain to shit bands. Expand your horizons and we shall meet and enjoy great thoughts and laughter in greener musical pastures (which this site does actually have). 

      • Stefan

        Jesus, I forgot to mention one of the greatest musical gifts 2011 brought us, the reemergence of Jeff Mangum!

      • Dan

        So basically, you can sum up this entire argument by saying that once a band becomes mainstream, they suck in your opinion.  Do you really think the reader’s of this blog are not up to speed on the world of indie rock?  Like nobody has heard of any of the bands you just listed.  Come on, man.  Nobody knew who the fuck Arcade Fire was before the Grammy’s and there was quite the amount of backlash from the mainstream audience.  How can you call them mainstream?  When the Suburbs was released, they were still far outside the mainstream radar for those not emerged in the world of indie rock.  It must be miserable being friends with you, that is, if you even still have any.

        • Stefan

          I don’t give a shit about mainstream or not. I’m just talking about good music and the ability to not loose your brains and go gaga for every middle of the road pack of adolescents who wanna make you go WHHHHOOOOAAAA WHHHHOOOOOAAAA with them. Don’t emerge yourself in the “indie world” that sounds terrible, but at the same time don’t think that the best music there is is the stuff you hear most frequently about.

          Arcade Fire is garbage music in my books. Win couldn’t write a decent melody to save his life (I’m serious he either sings one word at a time or follows the exact changes of the piano or guitar. That’s just amateur stuff in my books. And before I get attacked about all bands needing to write great melody, no they don’t but those bands usually bring an incridible creativity to another facet of song writing). The emotionally affected vocals bug me to no end. The kiddy lyrics do nothing for me.

          Colin Stetson on the other hand is writing some extremely mind bending tunes and using some incredible live looping that sounds like it must be studio manipulation, though it is not. The guy is a force musically and he needs to train physically to do circular breathing on his sax, and train technically to acheive that one of kind sound he gets out of his pedals. It is astounding stuff that blows the immature shtick of The Arcade Fires out of the water.  

  • Stefan

    Colin Stetson should have won. The Suburbs stinks, other than Month of May the rest sounds terrible and like Bright Eye’s 14 year old cousin turning his diary into lyrics (who am I kidding, he writes his feelings in lyrics in his 14 year old diary anyway)

    • Dr. Detroit

      Someone’s too hipster

      • Stefan

        Don’t you all understand that Arcade Fire is hipster music? What teeneage scarffed up hipsters are listening to Colin Stetson? Get your insults correct at least, or at the very least try not to inderectly insult yourself when you throw out an insult.

        • Hank

          Great, first our music isn’t cool enough for you, now our insults aren’t any good either.  I’m off to practice my breathing exercises for the sax.  Stefan seems to respect that more than anything.

    • Moses1221

      Take a hike.

    • Dan

      There seems to be a trend of Stefan hating on article after article on this website.  I ask you again, why do you even read.  Why would you click on this article if you don’t even like Arcade Fire.  You’re just like Stan in the last episode of South Park, a cynical asshole who seems to find no enjoyment in anything, but you love to shit on other people’s parade.  Congratulations. 

      • Stefan

        Here’s the thing I can never understand about these types of responses, I’ve laid out that I think Colin Stetson should have won, I then followed it up with that I think The Subburbs suffers musically but most of all lyrically. Yet I always hear the compelling argument of “Don’t read if you don’t like” or “Hater”. Very convincing arguments guys, nice thoughts in your collective heads for sure!

        When I hear this all I can think of is that it is the response of a Super Fan who just got their feelings hurt on the internet.

        So why was The Suburbs better than all the other albums guys? Have you heard the Colin Stetson album?

        • Stefan

          What would you say to your beloved The Arcade Fires about ”Roccoco”? What a bunch of haters they are, huh? Seriously Arcade Fires, don’t read if you don’t like it. Move on dudes! Stop complaining. Why do you even read those reviews if you don’t like them. Sheeesh, right?

          You is all fools.

        • Dan

          No, I have not listened to Stetson’s album.  My beef is not about which album is better. My point is that, basically every comment I have ever read by you, is hateful in context.  You could have easily said, “I believe Colin Stetson should have won. Compared to his album, I felt that the Suburbs was lacking in creativity, especially the lyrical content”  That would have been the kind of statement which may have sparked some sort of constructive debate.  Instead, you say “The Suburbs stinks”.  Clearly, an album that has won nearly every award out there, not to mention being in the top 5 of nearly every music publication’s year-end list, does not “stink” as you so eloquently put it.  You didn’t comment on the article to spark some debate, you commented to start some hate.  You won’t convince anyone otherwise. 

          • Stefan

            Dude, Celine Dion has a billion Grammy’s. Is she one of your faves too then? Also, lets not forget how many people had that terrible Arctic Monkeys album on their top 5 lists a number of years ago. Again if you wanna go for what makes the lists and what you hear about the most cool, but I don’t think that is way that actually builds any real descirnible taste when it comes to making music.

            Tell me you guys, what do you like so, more than anything else possibly, about the Suburbs. Aside from its awards and top 5 lists. Musically what does it do for y’all? I really want to know. Maybe I don’t get it.

            • Dan

              I really think that we need to agree to disagree.  I know there is music out there that I myself, just don’t get.  Destroyer and James Blake are two of those.  I know you mentioned Destroyer below.  You may go on and on about the reasons why Kaputt was a great album, but to me it sounds like a gay acid trip through Tokyo or something. I know that sounds extremely immature, but thats just me being honest. I just don’t find it enjoyable.   Maybe musically, it is extremely talented, but I don’t see it.  There are lots of reasons why I may like an album or artist.  Every album doesn’t have to be the most ground-breaking thing on the planet for me to enjoy it.  Its the talents of the band, the playability of the record, the live shows, etc.  All of these factors together comprise a good album for me.  I’m a busy guy, and I don’t have time to sit at home and listen to albums all day.  Most of my listening comes on my commute to work, some at work, and the few times while I’m chilling at home with nothing to do. If I can put on an album on my drive to work and lose myself in it, that’s a good album to me.  Maybe you’re different. 

              I really believe there is a such thing as over-analyzing.  If every action and decision we make was completely rational, life would be pretty dull.  After all, the greatest thing in life, love, is completely irrational most of them time, yet it is awesome at the same time.  You had brought up Blink 182 in another post.  I am in no way comparing them to Arcade Fire (and I dont quite understand how you could), but I will still admit that I listen to them occasionally.  Again, I know they are not the most talented musicians, and I can’t quite understand why I like them, but it puts a smile on my face whenever a song of theirs comes on the radio.  Just because an album isnt groundbreaking, doesnt mean you cant enjoy it, and just because an album IS groundbreaking, doesnt mean you HAVE to enjoy it.  While I feel that Arcade Fire does make great music, I can’t quite explain why I love the album so much because there are so many factors, but all I know is that I still have not gotten tired of the Suburbs, and I enjoy it immensely.  Obviously, there are alot of people that feel the same way.  I feel that sometimes they get a bad rap because their music has somewhat of that “mass appeal” sound.  That’s why they have gotten popular in the mainstream.  You can’t fault them for that.  In fact, I know alot of people who like Suburbs, but they dont like Funeral or Neon Bible at all. Those albums don’t have as much mainstream appeal.  Alot of bands like Death Cab, Decemberists, Phoenix, Black Keys, Wilco, etc have that same sort of mainstream appeal to their sounds and its why they headline festivals.  That doesnt mean they suck.  Bands like Destroyer will never be big because the sound they’ve chosen to portray does not equate to all audiences. 

              I went on quite the tagent, but my point in all of this and what I’ve been saying the whole time is:  I’ll continue with my example of Destroyer.  While I may not like their music, I am not going to click on an article about them, just to comment on it by saying ”Destroyer stinks”  It’s not worth my time because I don’t care for them.  That’s the difference between you and I.  People don’t call you a hater because you dont like Arcade Fire, people call you a hater because you do just that, hate on other’s views just because you feel you have better taste than them, even though you could just not click on the article.  You could be humble about your musical expertise or your knowledge, but instead you choose to throw it in people’s faces to make them feel shitty about liking something or make yourself feel better about not liking it.  I’m not sure which it is.