Arcade Fire: The Suburbs (2LP) [SONY]

Why you'll love it

The Suburbs won Album of the Year at the Grammys and the Junos, plus the Polaris Prize and a Brit Award, and debuted at No. 1 in Canada, the US and the UK. A Montreal band at the top of the world.

This edition

• 2LP set, 16 tracks
• Sony pressing
• Produced by Markus Dravs and the band

About the album

Win and Will Butler grew up in the suburbs of Houston, and Arcade Fire's third album looks back at that world of cul-de-sacs, shopping malls and teenage boredom with a mix of nostalgia, anger and tenderness. It's sprawling (16 songs over an hour), but it never drags.

The title track bounces along on a jaunty piano, "Ready to Start" and "Month of May" are tense and urgent, "We Used to Wait" is a slow-building anthem about the lost art of waiting for letters, and Régine Chassagne's shimmering, Blondie-ish "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)" is pure joy. It swept the major awards in 2011, including the Polaris Prize, and announced a Canadian band as one of the biggest in the world.

Also at Kops: more Arcade Fire on vinyl · browse CDN Pop / Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On Sony, a reissue of the 2010 album.