The Suburbs (Arcade Fire album)
Encyclopedia
The Suburbs is the third studio album by Canadian indie rock
band Arcade Fire, released in August 2010. Coinciding with the announcement the band released a limited edition 12-inch single
containing two tracks from the album, “The Suburbs” and “Month of May”. The album debuted at #1 on the Irish Albums Chart
, the UK Albums Chart
, the U.S. Billboard 200
chart, and the Canadian Albums Chart
. It won Album of the Year
at the 2011 Grammy Awards
, Best International Album at the 2011 BRIT Awards
, Album of the Year at the 2011 Juno Awards
, and the 2011 Polaris Music Prize
for best Canadian album. Two weeks after winning Grammy's Album of the Year
, the album jumped from No. 52 to No. 12 on the Billboard 200
, the album's highest ranking since August 2010.
Arcade Fire released a deluxe edition CD/DVD of The Suburbs on June 27, 2011 (everywhere except the U.S. and Canada). The American and Canadian versions were released on August 2, 2011, to coincide with the original album's anniversary. The new version included two brand new tracks recorded during The Suburbs album sessions (“Culture War” and “Speaking in Tongues” featuring David Byrne
), an extended version of album track “Wasted Hours”, Spike Jonze
's short film, Scenes From The Suburbs, and an 80-page booklet as well as other exclusive content.
and William Butler
's upbringing in the suburbs of Houston. According to Win Butler, the album “is neither a love letter to, nor an indictment of, the suburbs – it's a letter from the suburbs.” The album was recorded in Win Butler and Régine Chassagne
's residence in Montreal
, with some parts being recorded at the band's studio in Quebec
and in New York City
. Win Butler describes the overall sound of The Suburbs as “a mix of Depeche Mode
and Neil Young
,” stating that he wanted the album to sound like “the bands that I heard when I was very young, and wondered what those crazy noises were.” It was released by Merge Records
in North America and by Mercury Records
in the United Kingdom.
The band pressed each completed song to a 12″ lacquer
, then recorded it back for the digital master
of the album. As a result, the CD and digital versions of the album sound the same as the vinyl, although, as with most recent CD and digital releases, there is a lot more compression
applied. There are eight alternative covers for the CD version of the album.
in London. On August 30, 2010, an interactive video was released for “We Used to Wait” at http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com, written and directed by Chris Milk
, designed in conjunction with Google Chrome
, which makes use of Google Maps
and Google Street View
, and has been featured in Time Magazine's “Short List”.
Another music video, for the title track “The Suburbs”, was released on November 18, 2010, directed by Spike Jonze
. The video, filmed in Austin, Texas
follows a group of teenagers living in the suburbs and features a cameo of Win Butler and Regine Chassagne as cops. The music video is composed of excerpts from Jonze's short film, Scenes from the Suburbs, which debuted at the Berlin International Film Festival
2011
, and has a running time of 30 minutes. Scenes from the Suburbs screened at the SXSW Film Festival 2011 and saw its online premiere on MUBI on June 27, 2011. Writing for the Canadian Press, Nick Patch called the film “a sci-fi puzzler that seems to blend the paranoia of Terry Gilliam
films with the nostalgia of classic Steven Spielberg
flicks.”
website Metacritic
gave the album an average score of 87%.
Writing for the BBC
, Mike Diver wrote, “The Suburbs is [Arcade Fire's] most thrillingly engrossing chapter yet; a complex, captivating work that, several cycles down the line, retains the magic and mystery of that first tentative encounter.” Referring to the critically acclaimed 1997 Radiohead
album, Diver went on to say, “You could call it their OK Computer
. But it’s arguably better than that.”
Several reviewers compared the album favourably to Arcade Fire's earlier work. Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone
awarded the album four out of five stars and described The Suburbs as “their fantastic third album”. Ian Cohen of Pitchfork.com
gave the album a rating of 8.6 out of 10, calling it “a satisfying return to form-- proof that Arcade Fire can still make grand statements without sounding like they're carrying the weight of the world.” Noel Murray of The AV Club described the album as “like one long sequel” to the band's earlier single “No Cars Go
”, giving it a rating of A-.
Having awarded the album four and a half stars out of five, David Marchese's review in Spin
describes the album as, “Radiant with apocalyptic tension and grasping to sustain real bonds, [it] extends hungrily outward, recalling the dystopic miasma of William Gibson's sci-fi novels and Sonic Youth's guitar odysseys. Desperate to elude its own corrosive dread, it keeps moving, asking, looking, and making the promise that hope isn't just another spiritual cul-de-sac.”
NME
' s reviewer, Emily Mackay, awarded the album a score of 9 out of 10 and said, “They've judged their moment perfectly, and this deserves to be their 'Automatic for the People
'; an album that combines mass accessibility with much greater ambition. Pretty much perfect, in other words – and despite their best efforts, listening to it feels just like coming home.” The record was “Album of the Month” in UNCUT
, whose reviewer Alastair McKay gave the album 4 stars out of 5, calling it “a surprising record, swapping the spit and fire of Funeral for a sense of mature playfulness”, and concluding that “[it] explores the badlands between safety and boredom. It’s nostalgic, with a sense of future dread. There is pain and pleasure, loss and hope. It feels like the anesthetic is wearing off.”
“The Suburbs” was awarded Exclaim!
's No. 1 Pop & Rock Album of 2010. Writer Andrea Warner summarized the disc as “a perfect actualization of the suburbs as metaphor for the classic North American dream: a smoothly perfect veneer covering up the lush complexity of motivation. It's not just metaphor, but goes a step further to exemplify the quintessential Arcade Fire sound ― a controlled frenzy, pushing and reaching for something more.”
. On July 6, The Suburbs was awarded a spot on the short-list, making it one of ten possible candidates to win $30,000 and the recognition as the best Canadian album of the year as voted by jury of Canadian journalists and broadcasters. On September 19, 2011 it won the Polaris Music Prize.
The album was Album of the Year
at the Juno Awards and the 53rd Grammy Awards
, won Best International Album at the 2011 BRIT Awards
and was also on numerous best-albums-of-the-year lists:
The single “Ready to Start” was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal
.
Other personnel:
Indie rock
Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...
band Arcade Fire, released in August 2010. Coinciding with the announcement the band released a limited edition 12-inch single
12-inch single
The 12-inch single is a type of gramophone record that has wider groove spacing compared to other types of records. This allows for louder levels to be cut on the disc by the cutting engineer, which in turn gives a wider dynamic range, and thus better sound quality...
containing two tracks from the album, “The Suburbs” and “Month of May”. The album debuted at #1 on the Irish Albums Chart
Irish Albums Chart
The Irish Albums Chart is the Irish music industry standard albums popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on its behalf by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured electronically...
, the UK Albums Chart
UK Albums Chart
The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...
, the U.S. Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
chart, and the Canadian Albums Chart
Canadian Albums Chart
The Canadian Albums Chart is the official album sales chart in Canada. It is compiled every Wednesday by U.S.-based music sales tracking company Nielsen Soundscan, and published every Thursday by Jam! Canoe and Billboard, along with its sister charts the Canadian Singles Chart and the Canadian BDS...
. It won Album of the Year
Grammy Award for Album of the Year
The Grammy Award for Album of the Year is the most prestigious award category at the Grammys. It has been awarded since 1959 and though it was originally presented to the artist alone, the award is now presented to the artist, the producer, the engineer and/or mixer and the mastering engineer...
at the 2011 Grammy Awards
53rd Grammy Awards
The 53rd annual Grammy Awards were held on February 13, 2011, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. They were broadcast on CBS with a rating of 26.6 million viewers. Barbra Streisand was honored as the MusiCares Person of the Year two nights prior to the telecast on February 11. Nominations were...
, Best International Album at the 2011 BRIT Awards
2011 BRIT Awards
The 2011 BRIT Awards was held on Tuesday 15 February 2011.It was the 31st edition of the British Phonographic Industry's annual pop music awards. The award ceremony was held at The O2 Arena...
, Album of the Year at the 2011 Juno Awards
Juno Awards of 2011
The Juno Awards of 2011, honours Canadian music industry achievements in the latter part of 2009 and in most of 2010. The awards presented in Toronto, Ontario, Canada during the weekend of 26 and 27 March 2011. A week of related events on 21 March 2011...
, and the 2011 Polaris Music Prize
Polaris Music Prize
The Polaris Music Prize is a music award annually given to the best full-length Canadian album based on artistic merit, regardless of genre, sales, or record label...
for best Canadian album. Two weeks after winning Grammy's Album of the Year
Grammy Award for Album of the Year
The Grammy Award for Album of the Year is the most prestigious award category at the Grammys. It has been awarded since 1959 and though it was originally presented to the artist alone, the award is now presented to the artist, the producer, the engineer and/or mixer and the mastering engineer...
, the album jumped from No. 52 to No. 12 on the Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
, the album's highest ranking since August 2010.
Arcade Fire released a deluxe edition CD/DVD of The Suburbs on June 27, 2011 (everywhere except the U.S. and Canada). The American and Canadian versions were released on August 2, 2011, to coincide with the original album's anniversary. The new version included two brand new tracks recorded during The Suburbs album sessions (“Culture War” and “Speaking in Tongues” featuring David Byrne
David Byrne
David Byrne may refer to:*David Byrne , musician and former Talking Heads frontman**David Byrne , his eponymous album*David Byrne , Irish footballer*David Byrne , English footballer...
), an extended version of album track “Wasted Hours”, Spike Jonze
Spike Jonze
Spike Jonze is an American director, producer and actor, whose work includes music videos, commercials, film and television...
's short film, Scenes From The Suburbs, and an 80-page booklet as well as other exclusive content.
Background
The album's lyrical content is inspired by band members WinWin Butler
Win Butler is the lead vocalist and songwriter of the Montreal-based indie rock band Arcade Fire. His wife Régine Chassagne and his brother William Butler are both members of the band.-Life and career:...
and William Butler
William Butler (musician)
William Pierce Butler is a multi-instrumentalist who is best known as a member of the indie rock band Arcade Fire. William plays synthesizer, bass, guitar and percussion. He is known for his spontaneity and antics during performances...
's upbringing in the suburbs of Houston. According to Win Butler, the album “is neither a love letter to, nor an indictment of, the suburbs – it's a letter from the suburbs.” The album was recorded in Win Butler and Régine Chassagne
Régine Chassagne
Régine Chassagne is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist musician and singer, and a founding member of the band Arcade Fire. She is married to co-founder Win Butler.-Life and career:...
's residence in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, with some parts being recorded at the band's studio in Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
and in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Win Butler describes the overall sound of The Suburbs as “a mix of Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in 1980 in Basildon, Essex. The group's original line-up consisted of Dave Gahan , Martin Gore , Andy Fletcher and Vince Clarke...
and Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
,” stating that he wanted the album to sound like “the bands that I heard when I was very young, and wondered what those crazy noises were.” It was released by Merge Records
Merge Records
Merge Records is an independent record label based in Durham, North Carolina. It was founded in 1989 by Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan. It began as a way to release music from their band Superchunk and music created by friends, and has expanded to include artists from around the world and records...
in North America and by Mercury Records
Mercury Records
Mercury Records is a record label operating as a standalone company in the UK and as part of the Island Def Jam Motown Music Group in the US; both are subsidiaries of Universal Music Group. There is also a Mercury Records in Australia, which is a local artist and repertoire division of Universal...
in the United Kingdom.
The band pressed each completed song to a 12″ lacquer
Acetate disc
An acetate disc, also known as a test acetate, dubplate , lacquer , transcription disc or instantaneous disc...
, then recorded it back for the digital master
Digital master
A digital master is an image, PDF file or another digital asset created for the purpose of reuse and re-expression. For images it is the digital analogue to a photographic negative. It is the master from which variations for specific uses can be derived....
of the album. As a result, the CD and digital versions of the album sound the same as the vinyl, although, as with most recent CD and digital releases, there is a lot more compression
Loudness war
The loudness war or loudness race is a pejorative term for the apparent competition to digitally master and release recordings with increasing loudness.The phenomenon was first reported with respect to mastering practices for 7" singles...
applied. There are eight alternative covers for the CD version of the album.
Promotion
A video for “Ready to Start” was released on August 20, 2010, directed by Charlie Lightning and filmed at the band's July 7, 2010 concert at the Hackney EmpireHackney Empire
The Hackney Empire is a theatre on Mare Street, in the London Borough of Hackney, built in 1901 as a music hall.-History:Hackney Empire is a grade II* listed building...
in London. On August 30, 2010, an interactive video was released for “We Used to Wait” at http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com, written and directed by Chris Milk
Chris Milk
Chris Milk is an American music video director and photographer. He has directed videos for Kanye West, U2, Green Day, Courtney Love, Audioslave, Modest Mouse, Gnarls Barkley and Arcade Fire. He also has numerous television commercials to his credit...
, designed in conjunction with Google Chrome
Google Chrome
Google Chrome is a web browser developed by Google that uses the WebKit layout engine. It was first released as a beta version for Microsoft Windows on September 2, 2008, and the public stable release was on December 11, 2008. The name is derived from the graphical user interface frame, or...
, which makes use of Google Maps
Google Maps
Google Maps is a web mapping service application and technology provided by Google, free , that powers many map-based services, including the Google Maps website, Google Ride Finder, Google Transit, and maps embedded on third-party websites via the Google Maps API...
and Google Street View
Google Street View
Google Street View is a technology featured in Google Maps and Google Earth that provides panoramic views from various positions along many streets in the world...
, and has been featured in Time Magazine's “Short List”.
Another music video, for the title track “The Suburbs”, was released on November 18, 2010, directed by Spike Jonze
Spike Jonze
Spike Jonze is an American director, producer and actor, whose work includes music videos, commercials, film and television...
. The video, filmed in Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
follows a group of teenagers living in the suburbs and features a cameo of Win Butler and Regine Chassagne as cops. The music video is composed of excerpts from Jonze's short film, Scenes from the Suburbs, which debuted at the Berlin International Film Festival
Berlin International Film Festival
The Berlin International Film Festival , also called the Berlinale, is one of the world's leading film festivals and most reputable media events. It is held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in West Berlin in 1951, the festival has been celebrated annually in February since 1978...
2011
61st Berlin International Film Festival
The 61st annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from February 10 to February 20, 2011, with actress Isabella Rossellini as the President of the Jury. The Coen Brothers film True Grit opened the festival. 300,000 tickets were sold in total during the event, to 20,000 attendees from 116...
, and has a running time of 30 minutes. Scenes from the Suburbs screened at the SXSW Film Festival 2011 and saw its online premiere on MUBI on June 27, 2011. Writing for the Canadian Press, Nick Patch called the film “a sci-fi puzzler that seems to blend the paranoia of Terry Gilliam
Terry Gilliam
Terrence Vance "Terry" Gilliam is an American-born British screenwriter, film director, animator, actor and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. Gilliam is also known for directing several films, including Brazil , The Adventures of Baron Munchausen , The Fisher King , and 12 Monkeys...
films with the nostalgia of classic Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
flicks.”
Critical reception
The album has received universal acclaim. Collating 43 reviews, the review aggregatorReview aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services . This system stores the reviews and then uses them for purposes such as: creating a website for users to view the reviews, selling information to third parties about consumer tendencies and creating databases for...
website Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
gave the album an average score of 87%.
Writing for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, Mike Diver wrote, “The Suburbs is [Arcade Fire's] most thrillingly engrossing chapter yet; a complex, captivating work that, several cycles down the line, retains the magic and mystery of that first tentative encounter.” Referring to the critically acclaimed 1997 Radiohead
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...
album, Diver went on to say, “You could call it their OK Computer
OK Computer
OK Computer is the third studio album by the English alternative rock band Radiohead, released on 16 June 1997 on Parlophone in the UK and 1 July 1997 by Capitol Records in the US. It marks a deliberate attempt by the band to move away from the introspective guitar-oriented sound of their previous...
. But it’s arguably better than that.”
Several reviewers compared the album favourably to Arcade Fire's earlier work. Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
awarded the album four out of five stars and described The Suburbs as “their fantastic third album”. Ian Cohen of Pitchfork.com
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
gave the album a rating of 8.6 out of 10, calling it “a satisfying return to form-- proof that Arcade Fire can still make grand statements without sounding like they're carrying the weight of the world.” Noel Murray of The AV Club described the album as “like one long sequel” to the band's earlier single “No Cars Go
No Cars Go
"No Cars Go" is a song by Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire. It is the fourth single released from the band's second full-length album, Neon Bible...
”, giving it a rating of A-.
Having awarded the album four and a half stars out of five, David Marchese's review in Spin
Spin (magazine)
Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...
describes the album as, “Radiant with apocalyptic tension and grasping to sustain real bonds, [it] extends hungrily outward, recalling the dystopic miasma of William Gibson's sci-fi novels and Sonic Youth's guitar odysseys. Desperate to elude its own corrosive dread, it keeps moving, asking, looking, and making the promise that hope isn't just another spiritual cul-de-sac.”
NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
Automatic for the People
Automatic for the People is the eighth album by the American alternative rock band R.E.M., released in 1992 on Warner Bros. Records. While R.E.M...
'; an album that combines mass accessibility with much greater ambition. Pretty much perfect, in other words – and despite their best efforts, listening to it feels just like coming home.” The record was “Album of the Month” in UNCUT
UNCUT (magazine)
Uncut magazine, trademarked as UNCUT, is a monthly publication based in London. It is available across the English-speaking world, and focuses on music, but also includes film and books sections...
, whose reviewer Alastair McKay gave the album 4 stars out of 5, calling it “a surprising record, swapping the spit and fire of Funeral for a sense of mature playfulness”, and concluding that “[it] explores the badlands between safety and boredom. It’s nostalgic, with a sense of future dread. There is pain and pleasure, loss and hope. It feels like the anesthetic is wearing off.”
“The Suburbs” was awarded Exclaim!
Exclaim!
Exclaim! is a monthly Canadian music magazine that features in-depth coverage of new music across all genres with special focus on Canadian and cutting-edge artists...
's No. 1 Pop & Rock Album of 2010. Writer Andrea Warner summarized the disc as “a perfect actualization of the suburbs as metaphor for the classic North American dream: a smoothly perfect veneer covering up the lush complexity of motivation. It's not just metaphor, but goes a step further to exemplify the quintessential Arcade Fire sound ― a controlled frenzy, pushing and reaching for something more.”
Awards and accolades
On June 16, 2011, the album was named as a long-listed nominee for the 2011 Polaris Music Prize2011 Polaris Music Prize
The 2011 edition of the Canadian Polaris Music Prize was presented on September 19, 2011. The winner was Arcade Fire, for the album The Suburbs.For the 2011 award, the prize was increased to $30,000 for the winning musician.-Shortlist:...
. On July 6, The Suburbs was awarded a spot on the short-list, making it one of ten possible candidates to win $30,000 and the recognition as the best Canadian album of the year as voted by jury of Canadian journalists and broadcasters. On September 19, 2011 it won the Polaris Music Prize.
The album was Album of the Year
Grammy Award for Album of the Year
The Grammy Award for Album of the Year is the most prestigious award category at the Grammys. It has been awarded since 1959 and though it was originally presented to the artist alone, the award is now presented to the artist, the producer, the engineer and/or mixer and the mastering engineer...
at the Juno Awards and the 53rd Grammy Awards
53rd Grammy Awards
The 53rd annual Grammy Awards were held on February 13, 2011, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. They were broadcast on CBS with a rating of 26.6 million viewers. Barbra Streisand was honored as the MusiCares Person of the Year two nights prior to the telecast on February 11. Nominations were...
, won Best International Album at the 2011 BRIT Awards
2011 BRIT Awards
The 2011 BRIT Awards was held on Tuesday 15 February 2011.It was the 31st edition of the British Phonographic Industry's annual pop music awards. The award ceremony was held at The O2 Arena...
and was also on numerous best-albums-of-the-year lists:
-
- 1 - BBC 6 MusicBBC 6 MusicBBC 6 Music is one of the BBC's digital radio stations, was launched on 11 March 2002 and originally codenamed Network Y. It was the first national music radio station to be launched by the BBC in 32 years....
's Top 50 albums of the year - 1 - Clash MagazineClash (magazine)Clash is a popular music and fashion magazine based in the United Kingdom. Its magazine title is published 12 times a year. It has a circulation of around 40,000....
's Top 40 Albums of 2010 - 1 - Exclaim!Exclaim!Exclaim! is a monthly Canadian music magazine that features in-depth coverage of new music across all genres with special focus on Canadian and cutting-edge artists...
s Top 20 Albums of 2010 - 1 - Q MagazineQ (magazine)Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...
's Top 50 Albums of 2010 - 1 - Triple JTriple Jtriple j is a nationally networked Australian radio station intended to appeal to listeners between the ages of 18 and 30. The government-funded station is a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation...
Listeners' Top 10 Albums - 2 - BillboardBillboard (magazine)Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
s Top 10 Albums of 2010 - 2 - MagnetMagnet (magazine)Magnet is a music magazine which generally focuses on alternative, independent, or out-of-the-mainstream bands.-History:The magazine is published four times a year, and is independently owned and edited by Eric T. Miller. Music magazines with a similar focus in the 1990s era included Option,...
s Top 20 Albums of 2010 - 2 - NMENMEThe New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
s Top 75 Albums of 2010 - 2 - Relevant MagazineRelevant MagazineRELEVANT Magazine is a bimonthly magazine providing content on “God, life, and progressive culture”. It is published by RELEVANT Media Group and a circulation of 56,667. Its companion web presence, RELEVANTmagazine.com, launched in 2002 with the email newsletter, 850 Words of RELEVANT...
s Top 10 Albums of 2010 - 2 - StereogumStereogumStereogum was one of the first MP3 blogs. It was created by Scott Lapatine in January 2002 with a focus on independent and alternative music news, downloads, videos, and gossip. Stereogum has received several awards and citations, including the 2008 Plug Award for best music blog, Blender's...
's Top 50 Albums of 2010 - 2 - TimeTime (magazine)Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
s Top 10 Albums of 2010 - 2 - Under the RadarUnder the Radar (magazine)Under the Radar is an American magazine that bills itself as "The solution to music pollution" and features interviews with accompanying photo-shoots. Each issue includes opinion and commentary of the Indie music scene as well as reviews on books, DVDs and albums.Items are reviewed based on a...
s Top 50 Albums of 2010 - 3 - SpinSpin (magazine)Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...
s 40 Best Albums of 2010 - 4 - MTVMTVMTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
's 20 Best Albums of 2010 - 4 - Rolling StoneRolling StoneRolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
s 30 Best Albums of 2010 - 7 - Paste MagazinePaste (magazine)Paste is a monthly music and entertainment digital magazine published in the United States by Wolfgang's Vault. Its tagline is "Signs of Life in Music, Film and Culture."-History:...
's 50 Best Albums of 2010 - 9 - American Songwriters Top 50 Albums of 2010
- 11 - Drowned in SoundDrowned in SoundDrownedinSound.com or DiS is a UK based music webzine financed by artist management company Silentway . The site is an editorially independent music website.-History:...
's Albums of the Year - 11 - Pitchfork MediaPitchfork MediaPitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
's Top 50 Albums of 2010 - 21 - Rough Trade Shops's Albums of the Year (UK)
- 23 - Robert ChristgauRobert ChristgauRobert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...
's 2010 Dean's List
- 1 - BBC 6 Music
- Glide Magazines Top 20 Albums of 2010
- NPRNPRNPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
's 50 Favorite Albums of 2010
The single “Ready to Start” was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal
Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal
The Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal was awarded between 1980 and 2011.The award was discontinued after the 2011 award season in a major overhaul of Grammy categories...
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Track listing
- “Suburban War” is track 15 on the vinyl version of the album.
- In the Deluxe Edition, “Wasted Hours” is retitled as "Wasted Hours (A Life That We Can Live)" and features an extended ending. The track length goes to 4:26.
- Initial copies of the album sold by selected independent music stores came with an exclusive 7" single of "Ready to Start" with a postcard.
Charts
| Chart (2010) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums Chart ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... |
6 |
| Belgian Albums Chart (Flanders) | 1 |
| Belgian Albums Chart (Wallonia) | 4 |
| Canadian Albums Chart Canadian Albums Chart The Canadian Albums Chart is the official album sales chart in Canada. It is compiled every Wednesday by U.S.-based music sales tracking company Nielsen Soundscan, and published every Thursday by Jam! Canoe and Billboard, along with its sister charts the Canadian Singles Chart and the Canadian BDS... |
1 |
| Dutch Albums Chart | 4 |
| Finland's Official List | 5 |
| German Albums Chart | 4 |
| Irish Albums Chart Irish Albums Chart The Irish Albums Chart is the Irish music industry standard albums popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on its behalf by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured electronically... |
1 |
| Italian Albums Chart | 17 |
| New Zealand Albums Chart | 3 |
| Norwegian Albums Chart | 1 |
| Portuguese Albums Chart | 1 |
| Spanish Albums Chart | 2 |
| Swedish Albums Chart | 8 |
| 1 | |
| 1 |
Year-end charts
| Chart (2010) | Position |
|---|---|
| UK Albums Chart | 57 |
| US Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
80 |
Personnel
Arcade Fire (mixing, production, arrangement):- Will ButlerWilliam Butler (musician)William Pierce Butler is a multi-instrumentalist who is best known as a member of the indie rock band Arcade Fire. William plays synthesizer, bass, guitar and percussion. He is known for his spontaneity and antics during performances...
- Win ButlerWin ButlerWin Butler is the lead vocalist and songwriter of the Montreal-based indie rock band Arcade Fire. His wife Régine Chassagne and his brother William Butler are both members of the band.-Life and career:...
- Régine ChassagneRégine ChassagneRégine Chassagne is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist musician and singer, and a founding member of the band Arcade Fire. She is married to co-founder Win Butler.-Life and career:...
- Jeremy GaraJeremy GaraJeremy Gara is a Canadian drummer originally from Ottawa, Ontario. He currently plays with successful indie rock band Arcade Fire. He has played in many other bands in the past, including "slow-core" band Kepler and math rock band Weights and Measures. He also had a part in the self-titled album...
- Tim KingsburyTim KingsburyTim Kingsbury is a Canadian musician and member of the indie rock band Arcade Fire. He plays bass guitar, guitar, and occasionally keyboards.He spent his early years living in and around Guelph, Ontario. His peers would become indie names such as Gentleman Reg and Jim Guthrie...
- Sarah NeufeldSarah NeufeldSarah Neufeld is a Canadian violinist and a member of the popular indie rock band Arcade Fire. She is also a member of the post rock band Bell Orchestre, alongside Arcade Fire multi-instrumentalist Richard Reed Parry and former Arcade Fire member Pietro Amato...
- Richard Reed Parry
Other personnel:
- Strings: Sarah Neufeld, Owen PallettOwen PallettMichael James Owen Pallett is a Canadian composer, violinist, keyboardist, and vocalist from Toronto, Ontario. He won the 2006 Polaris Music Prize for the album He Poos Clouds....
, Richard Reed Parry and Marika Anthony ShawMarika ShawMarika Anthony-Shaw is a Canadian violist/violinist who is a touring member of the band Arcade Fire and played viola on their second album Neon Bible and most recent album The Suburbs. Prior to her current role, she was an Orchestra teacher at Lindsay Place High School... - Additional strings: Clarice Jensen, Nadia Sirota, Yuki Numata, Caleb Burhans, Ben Russell and Rob Moose
- Colin StetsonColin StetsonColin Stetson, born in Ann Arbor, Michigan and currently based in Montreal, Quebec, is a bass saxophone player and touring member of Arcade Fire, Bell Orchestre and Bon Iver...
– saxophones (tracks 9, 13 & 15) - Pietro AmatoPietro AmatoPietro Amato is a Montreal French horn player. He plays with three bands: Torngat, Bell Orchestre, and The Luyas. Amato is also involved with Arcade Fire providing studio contributions and occasional touring....
– French horn (tracks 13 & 15)
Technical personnel
- Owen PallettOwen PallettMichael James Owen Pallett is a Canadian composer, violinist, keyboardist, and vocalist from Toronto, Ontario. He won the 2006 Polaris Music Prize for the album He Poos Clouds....
– string arrangements - Markus DravsMarkus DravsMarkus Dravs is a music producer, programmer, engineer, and mixer.After hearing Brian Eno's collaboration with David Byrne "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts", he decided to get into engineering....
– co-production - Mark Lawson – recording
- Craig SilveyCraig Silvey (producer)-Early Career:Craig Silvey began his career as an engineer at Skywalker Sound working and training under producer/inventor George Massenburg and working with contemporary classical act Kronos Quartet...
– mixing - Nick LaunayNick LaunayNick Launay is an English record producer and recording engineer. He is currently one of the most sought after producers in the world due to his current success with recent albums by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Arcade Fire, and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds...
– additional mixing (tracks 2, 4 & 15) - Marcus Paquin, Don Murnaghan and Noah Goldstein – additional recording
- Brian Thorn – assistant (Magic Shop)
- Brad Bell – assistant (Public Hi-Fi)
- Adam Greenspan – assistant
- Caroline Robert – artwork design
- Vincent Morisset – art direction
- Gabriel Jones – photography (assisted by Joey Matthews & Stephane Fiore)