''The Suburbs'' is the third studio album by Canadian

indie rock Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produc ...

band

Arcade Fire Arcade Fire is a Canadian indie rock band, consisting of husband and wife Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, alongside Richard Reed Parry, Tim Kingsbury and Jeremy Gara. The band's current touring line-up also includes former core member ...

, released on August 2, 2010. Coinciding with its announcement, the band released a limited edition

12-inch single The twelve-inch single (often written as 12-inch or 12″) is a type of vinyl ( polyvinyl chloride or PVC) gramophone record that has wider groove spacing and shorter playing time with a 'single' or a few related sound tracks on each surfac ...

containing the title track and "Month of May".“Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs to be released August 3”
. Nationalpost.com. Retrieved May 27, 2010.“Hear Two New Arcade Fire Songs and an Interview”
. NPR's All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen talked to Arcade Fire's Win and Will Butler about the record, while also offering a special preview of the songs “Month of May” and “The Suburbs.” Retrieved May 27, 2010. The album debuted at No. 1 on the

Irish Albums Chart The Irish Albums Chart is the Irish music industry standard albums popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA). The charts were previously compiled on behalf of IRMA by Chart-Track, and have been compiled by the ...

, the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...

, the US ''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 Brit Awards 2011 was the 31st edition of the British Phonographic Industry's annual pop music show, the Brit Awards. The awards ceremony was held on Tuesday 15 February 2011 at The O2 Arena in London for the first time in its history, moving fr ...

, Album of the Year at the 2011 Juno Awards, and the 2011

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. The award was established in 2006 with a $20,000 cash prize; the prize was incr ...

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", the latter 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.

Background

The album's lyrical content is inspired by band members Win and William Butler's upbringing in

The Woodlands, Texas The Woodlands is a special-purpose district and census-designated place (CDP) in the U.S. state of Texas in the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan statistical area. The Woodlands is primarily located in Montgomery County, with p ...

, a suburb of

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...

. 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 Alexandra Chassagne (; born 19 August 1976) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, musician, and multi-instrumentalist, and is a member of the band Arcade Fire. She is married to co-founder Win Butler. Early life and career Régine Alexand ...

's residence in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

, with some parts being recorded at the band's studio in

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

and in New York City. Win Butler describes the overall sound of ''The Suburbs'' as "a mix of Depeche Mode and

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Fur ...

", 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 is an independent record label based in Durham, North Carolina. It was founded in 1989 by Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan. It began as an outlet for music from their band Superchunk and music created by friends, and has expande ...

in North America and by

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. In the United States, it i ...

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. 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 Empire Hackney Empire is a theatre on Mare Street, in the London Borough of Hackney. Originally designed by Frank Matcham it was built in 1901 as a music hall, and expanded in 2001. Described by ''The Guardian'' as ‘the most beautiful theatre in L ...

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 is an American entrepreneur, innovator, director, photographer, and immersive artist. He is co-founder and CEO of Within (Virtual Reality) (formerly Vrse), a virtual reality technology company, and co-founder of Here Be Dragons (for ...

, designed in conjunction with Google Chrome, which makes use of

Google Maps Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panoramic views of streets ( Street View), real-time traffic conditions, and rou ...

and

Google Street View Google Street View is a technology featured in Google Maps and Google Earth that provides interactive panoramas from positions along many streets in the world. It was launched in 2007 in several cities in the United States, and has since expan ...

, and has been featured in ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

''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 Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

, follows a group of teenagers living in the suburbs, and features cameos by Win Butler and Sarah Neufeld as police officers. The music video is composed of excerpts from Jonze's short film, ''Scenes from the Suburbs'', which debuted at the

Berlin International Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the fest ...

2011, and has a running time of 30 minutes. ''Scenes from the Suburbs'' screened at the

SXSW Film Festival South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, T ...

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 Terrence Vance Gilliam (; born 22 November 1940) is an American-born British filmmaker, comedian, animator, actor and former member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. Gilliam has directed 13 feature films, including '' Time Bandits'' (1981), '' ...

films with the nostalgia of classic Steven Spielberg flicks".

Critical reception

''The Suburbs'' received acclaim from

music critics Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on w ...

. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 ...

score of 87 out of 100, which indicates "universal acclaim" based on 43 reviews. Writing for

BBC Music BBC Music is responsible for the music played across the BBC. The current director of music is Bob Shennan, who is also the controller of BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 6 Music, and the BBC Asian Network. Officially it is a part of the BBC's Radio ...

, Mike Diver described the album as the band'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" and stated that "you could call it their '' OK Computer''." Several reviewers compared ''The Suburbs'' favourably to Arcade Fire's earlier work. Ian Cohen of ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...

'' called 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 A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

'' described the album as being "like one long sequel" to the band's earlier single "

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''. The release date was due to be July 23, 2007 but the release was delayed to August 6, 2007. ...

". '' Q'' wrote that the band "may well have delivered their masterpiece." David Marchese, writing in '' Spin'', wrote of the album: "Radiant with apocalyptic tension and grasping to sustain real bonds, textends hungrily outward, recalling the dystopic miasma of

William Gibson William Ford Gibson (born March 17, 1948) is an American-Canadian speculative fiction writer and essayist widely credited with pioneering the science fiction subgenre known as ''cyberpunk''. Beginning his writing career in the late 1970s, hi ...

'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 ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

''s reviewer Emily Mackay compared ''The Suburbs'' to

R.E.M. R.E.M. was an American rock band from Athens, Georgia, formed in 1980 by drummer Bill Berry, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and lead vocalist Michael Stipe, who were students at the University of Georgia. One of the first alternati ...

's ''

Automatic for the People ''Automatic for the People'' is the eighth studio album by American alternative rock band R.E.M., released by Warner Bros. Records on October5, 1992 in the United Kingdom and Europe, and on the following day in the United States. R.E.M. began pro ...

'' in the sense of it being "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." ''

Uncut Uncut may refer to: * ''Uncut'' (film), a 1997 Canadian docudrama film by John Greyson about censorship * ''Uncut'' (magazine), a monthly British magazine with a focus on music, which began publishing in May 1997 * '' BET: Uncut'', a Black Enter ...

'' designated the album as their "Album of the Month"; in a 4-star review for the magazine, Alastair McKay called it "a surprising record, swapping the spit and fire of ''Funeral'' for a sense of mature playfulness", and concluding that " texplores 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." '' Exclaim!'' listed the album as their No. 1 Pop & Rock Album of 2010. Writer Andrea Warner summarized it 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." The album was also included in the 2011 edition of the book ''

1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die ''1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die'' is a musical reference book first published in 2005 by Universe Publishing. Part of the ''1001 Before You Die'' series, it compiles writings and information on albums chosen by a panel of music critics ...

''.

Accolades

On June 16, 2011, the album was named as a long-listed nominee for the

2011 Polaris Music Prize The 2011 edition of the Canadian Polaris Music Prize was presented on September 19, 2011

."2011 Polaris Music Prize Long List announced"
. aux.tv, June 16, 2011. On July 6, ''The Suburbs'' was awarded a spot on the shortlist, 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 won both Album of the Year at the

Juno Awards of 2011 The Juno Awards of 2011 honoured Canadian music industry achievements in the latter part of 2009 and in most of 2010. The awards were presented in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, during the weekend of 26 and 27 March 2011. A week of related events bega ...

, as well as the Album of the Year at the

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 pri ...

, and earned a nomination for

Best Alternative Music Album The Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album is an award presented to recording artists for quality albums in the alternative genre at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards. H ...

, won International Album at the

and was also on numerous best-albums-of-the-year lists: *#1 – BBC 6 Music's Top 50 albums of the year *#1 – ''Clash'' Magazine's Top 40 Albums of 2010 *#1 – '' Exclaim!''s Top 20 Albums of 2010 *#1 – ''Q'' Magazine's Top 50 Albums of 2010 *#1 –

Triple J Triple J (stylised in all lowercase) is a government-funded, national Australian radio station intended to appeal to listeners of alternative music, which began broadcasting in January 1975. The station also places a greater emphasis on broad ...

Listeners' Top 10 Albums *#2 – ''Billboard''s Top 10 Albums of 2010 *#2 – ''Magnet''s Top 20 Albums of 2010 *#2 – ''

''s Top 75 Albums of 2010 *#2 – ''

Relevant Magazine ''Relevant'' (often styled as ''RELEVANT'') is a bi-monthly Christian lifestyle magazine. The magazine is published by Relevant Media Group with an average distributed circulation of 70,000 copies. According to a demographic study in 2012, 86% of ...

''s Top 10 Albums of 2010 *#2 – Stereogum's Top 50 Albums of 2010 *#2 – ''Time''s Top 10 Albums of 2010 *#2 – ''Under the Radar''s Top 50 Albums of 2010 *#3 – ''Spin''s 40 Best Albums of 2010 *#4 – MTV's 20 Best Albums of 2010 *#4 – ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...

''s 30 Best Albums of 2010 *#7 – ''Paste'' Magazine's 50 Best Albums of 2010 *#9 – ''

American Songwriter ''American Songwriter'' is a bimonthly magazine covering songwriting. Established in 1984, it features interviews, songwriting tips, news, reviews and lyric contest. The magazine is based in Nashville, Tennessee. History The ''American Songwri ...

''s Top 50 Albums of 2010 *#11 – Drowned in Sound's Albums of the Year *#11 –

's Top 50 Albums of 2010 *#21 – Rough Trade Shops's Albums of the Year (UK) *#23 – Robert Christgau's 2010 Dean's List *''Glide Magazines Top 20 Albums of 2010 *

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

'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 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. Beginning in 2012, all solo or duo/group ...

Track listing

Notes *"Suburban War" is the second to last track on the vinyl version of the album. *"We Used to Wait" finishes on an infinite loop at the end of Side 3 of the vinyl version. *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.

Personnel

Arcade Fire * Will Butler *

Win Butler Edwin Farnham Butler III (born April 14, 1980) is an American-Canadian singer, songwriter, musician, and multi-instrumentalist. He co-founded the Montreal-based indie rock band Arcade Fire with his wife Régine Chassagne. Early life Butler was ...

Jeremy Gara Jeremy Gara (born June 6, 1978) is a Canadian drummer from Ottawa, Ontario. He is most well known as the drummer of the band Arcade Fire. Gara is an active performer in a number of other projects, including work as a solo performer. Career Ga ...

Tim Kingsbury Tim Kingsbury (born 1977) is a Canadian musician and member of the indie rock band Arcade Fire. He plays bass guitar, guitar, and occasionally keyboards. Early life Kingsbury spent his early years living in and around Guelph, Ontario. He comes ...

* Sarah Neufeld *

Richard Reed Parry Richard Reed Parry (born October 4, 1977) is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, best known as a core member of the Grammy Award-winning indie rock band Arcade Fire, where he plays a wide variety of instruments, often switching ...

Additional musicians *Strings: Sarah Neufeld,

Owen Pallett Michael James Owen Pallett (born September 7, 1979) is a Canadian composer, violinist, keyboardist, and vocalist. Under their erstwhile moniker of Final Fantasy, Pallett won the 2006 Polaris Music Prize for the album '' He Poos Clouds''. Palle ...

, Richard Reed Parry and Marika Anthony Shaw *Additional strings: Clarice Jensen,

Nadia Sirota Nadia Sirota (born in New York) is an American viola player. Her father is Robert Sirota, a composer and conductor. Life and career Sirota is best known for her singular sound and expressive execution, coaxing solo works from the likes of N ...

, Yuki Numata, Caleb Burhans, Ben Russell and

Rob Moose Rob Moose (born 1982) is an American multi-instrumentalist, arranger, producer, conductor, and orchestrator. He primarily plays the violin, viola, and guitar. Early life and education Moose was born in 1982. He was raised in Windsor, Connect ...

Colin Stetson Colin Stetson (born March 3, 1975) is a Canadian-American saxophonist, multireedist, and composer based in Montreal. He is best known as a regular collaborator of the indie rock acts Arcade Fire, Bon Iver, Bell Orchestre, and Ex Eye. In additio ...

– saxophones (tracks 9, 13 & 15) *

Pietro Amato Pietro Amato is a French horn player with the rock bands Torngat, Bell Orchestre, and The Luyas. He has also performed with Arcade Fire. Career In 2001, Amato, along with keyboardist Mathieu Charbonneau and percussionist Julien Poissant, form ...

– French horn (tracks 13 & 15) Technical *Arcade Fire – (mixing, production, arrangement) *

– string arrangements *

Markus Dravs Markus Dravs is a British music producer, songwriter, programmer, engineer and mixer. His credits include Arcade Fire, Coldplay, Wolf Alice, Björk, Brian Eno, Sheep on Drugs, Mumford & Sons, Florence + the Machine, The Maccabees and Kings o ...

– co-production *Mark Lawson – recording *Craig Silvey – mixing *

Nick Launay Nicolas Launay is an English record producer, composer and recording engineer. He is one of the most sought after record producers in the world due to his success with recent albums by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Anna Calvi, IDLES, Black Re ...

– 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 Vincent ( la, Vincentius) is a male given name derived from the Roman name Vincentius, which is derived from the Latin word (''to conquer''). People with the given name Artists *Vincent Apap (1909–2003), Maltese sculptor *Vincent van Gogh ...

– art direction *Gabriel Jones – photography (assisted by Joey Matthews & Stephane Fiore)

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications and sales

!scope="row", Worldwide , , 1,000,000+ , -

References

External links

The Wilderness Downtown
– Arcade Fire's interactive video for "We Used to Wait"
www.sprawl2.com
– Arcade Fire's interactive video for "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)" {{DEFAULTSORT:Suburbs, The 2010 albums Arcade Fire albums Albums produced by Markus Dravs Brit Award for International Album Concept albums Grammy Award for Album of the Year Juno Award for Album of the Year albums Juno Award for Alternative Album of the Year albums Mercury Records albums Merge Records albums Polaris Music Prize-winning albums Works about suburbs