Arcade Fire’s ‘The Suburbs’ Wins Polaris Prize

Arcade Fire’s ‘The Suburbs’ was last night crowned winner of the Polaris Music Prize - an award celebrating albums released by Canadian artists.

At the ceremony at Toronto’s Masonic Temple, the record beat off competition from the likes of Austra’s ‘Feel It Break’, Destroyer’s ‘Kaputt’ and Braids’ ‘Native Speaker’ to win the band $30,000 and their record’s name alongside previous winners including Fucked Up’s ‘The Chemistry Of Common Life’ (2009) and Final Fantasy’s ‘He Poos Clouds’ (2006).

Of the win, the band said: “We feel very emotional to receive an award based solely on artistic merit. We really believe in records and we are thankful to the Polaris for recognizing our work and the work of so many great Canadian artists!”

The full shortlist was:

Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
Austra - Feel It Break
Braids - Native Speaker
Destroyer - Kaputt
Galaxie - Tigre et diesel
Hey Rosetta! - Seeds
Ron Sexsmith - Long Player Late Bloomer
Colin Stetson - New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges
Timber Timbre - Creep On Creepin’ On
The Weeknd - House of Balloons

Each shortlist nominee received $2,000.

The award’s Grand Jury’s Liisa Ladouceur, gave the following statement: “There’s no such thing as a guaranteed winner with Polaris. As always, this year, there was a long and thoughtful discussion about the merits of all the Short Listed records. In the end, The Suburbs was recognized by many jurors as the most accomplished and complete artistic statement.”

More info on the prize can be found here.