Pitchfork

Shockingly, an album called He Poos Clouds has won something other than a Worst Title Ever award. Final Fantasy's second album won the prestigious Polaris Music Prize last night (the Polaris being Canada's equivalent of the Mercury Music Prize). Final Fantasy, aka Arcade Fire sideman/master string arranger Owen Pallett, walked away with $20,000 and a sense of pride in being deemed better than Broken Social Scene, Wolf Parade, and the New Pornographers, among others.

According to a press release, Pallett had this reaction upon being awarded the Prize: "Confused! But happy and appreciative. Not in a million years. Along with Malajube and Cadence Weapon, I'm one of the few bands with no money behind me, so I'm going to try to put it to good use."

The Polaris Music Prize winner was determined by an 11-member "Gala Jury", part of the over 100 journalists and broadcasters who originally submitted their votes for the best Canadian album released between June 1, 2005 and May 31, 2006. (Full disclosure: Pitchfork's own Mark Pytlik was one of those journalists.) According to jury moderator Liisa Ladouceur, He Poos Clouds was picked because it is "a record that took us on a journey that was exceptional from start to finish."

Here are the albums it beat:

Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene
Cadence Weapon - Breaking Kayfabe
The Deadly Snakes - Porcella
Sarah Harmer - I'm a Mountain
K'naan - The Dusty Foot Philosopher
Malajube - Trompe L'Oeil
Metric - Live It Out
The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema
Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary

Congratulations, Owen!