Arcade Fire wins the Polaris Prize

Finally, Arcade Fire is getting some positive reinforcement for its 2010 album The Suburbs: The band was awarded Canada's Polaris Prize last night, beating out Destroyer, Colin Stetson, the Weeknd, Galaxie, Ron Sexsmith, and Hey Rosetta! The Polaris is essentially the Canadian equivalent of Britain's Mercury Prize, in that the award is voted on by the country's music critics. We have no major music-critic prize in the U.S., because Americans have fought and died to keep music critics in their proper, prestige-free place. [Via Spinner]