Earlier this year the band Arcade Fire released their third album The Suburbs, and not only was it met with mostly glowing critical praise, it also got them their first number one album. Needless to say, getting the top album is no longer the grand achievement it once was, but hey they have one more number one album than I do. Inevitably the cries of “sold out” began to rise from the masses, but in my opinion that is one of the dumbest uses of that phrase in a while. If you listen to The Suburbs, it is not the work of a band that’s sold out, but a band taking what they’ve done thus far and continuing down the logical road. That said, I don’t love The Suburbs, but I really like it and I think Arcade Fire is one of the most interesting bands going, and often one of the best.
Where Weezer sets their sights oh so low, Arcade Fire reaches for the stars with every album, delivering some of the most bloated, pretentious, but goshdarnit great alternative rock out there. They are not my favorite band, but they come close more often than they annoy me.
The first time I saw them, I believe, was on a television show such as SNL, and within minutes of seeing them the most common reaction is “Who do these pretentious French-Canadian kids think they are? String instruments? A freaking megaphone? I oughta beat the snot out of them!”
Arcade Fire - Intervention from Zach Slovin on Vimeo.
By the way, Rainn Wilson was the host? Somewhere a hipster is crying in joy.
Now, the song they performed there was “Intervention” off of their second album Neon Bible, which might be their strongest effort. Yes, the song started with the sound of a church organ. Yes, the frontman Win Butler smashed his guitar at the end of the performance in the least original move ever. But let’s move past it! Just listen to the song. If you deny its power I’m afraid I may have to fight you. “Intervention” could also be called “Essence of Arcade Fire”: a four-minute example of everything there is to love about them and everything about them that might make you cringe. They’re big, they’re obnoxious, but they’re also endlessly innovative and a great listen. If you don’t like “Intervention”, you probably won’t like the band.
Arcade Fire is fronted by the husband/wife team of Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, but onstage one notices just how massive the band truly is. Other members include Richard Reed Perry, Win Butler’s brother William, drummer Jeremy Gara, Tim Kingsbury and violinist Sarah Neufeld. There are likely even more of them onstage, as to watch them live is to worry that this is just an elaborate plan to amass enough members to invade Poland. However, the band doesn’t just stop with the amount of performers, but the performance itself is just as hilariously over-the-top as the music can be.
Their first full-length album was Funeral, released in 2004. It was released to mass acclaim and appeared on many best-of-the-decade lists come 2009. It does not have the same dark qualities as their second album Neon Bible, but to many that’s an asset. It meditates on the subject of death and loss with a certain positive energy you rarely see, and in the end it’s almost uplifting. While songs like “Neighborhood #2 (Laïka)” may sound like a family’s grief spinning out of control, it’s the sweeping power of songs like “Wake Up” (featured in the trailer for Where the Wild Things Are and NFL commercials of all things) that stick with you for ages. While I have not witnessed it first hand, from what I’ve heard it is something special when the band breaks into “Wake Up” at the end of every concert. I must say that for once (and only once) I agree with a YouTube comment: “This is on God’s iPod”.
As I mentioned before, their second album Neon Bible is the album I tend to prefer as a whole over Funeral, though you can’t go wrong either way. It certainly exists in a much starker universe than their other two albums, but again I tend to like that sort of thing. Highlights include the aforementioned “Intervention”, the opener “Black Mirror”, and the terrific climax that is “No Cars Go”. People have accused this album as being too bleak, but I think it has a whole lot of hope around the edges.
Like much of their work, it does not sound as polished as other music. I love that, personally. Rougher production tends to lead to more honest work, and it sounds less artificial. I am a man who likes his ears to be challenged. Too much candy can be bad for you, kids. I enjoy it occasionally as well, but in all my entertainment forms I tend to prefer more ambitious works than the norm. I don’t need to be challenged TOO much, but at times Arcade Fire is able to fulfill my need for the mildly abrasive. Again, mildly. I don’t want to make listening to an Arcade Fire record sound laborious, because it’s not. It’s just different than the average stuff, and it makes their success equally strange and exciting.
Now we come to this very year, and Arcade Fire has reached a level of success that to this day seems incredibly unlikely. They’ve made an appearance on The Daily Show, for crying out loud. Some have crowned them “the next U2”, but I disagree because they lack the pure universal appeal that somehow U2 is able to pull off. Let’s face it, if you hate U2 you hate humanity.
The album Arcade Fire released in August, The Suburbs, contains some of my favorite songs the band has done, but as an album it is far too long and as such when it ends it just kind of peters out. It begins magnificently, with the great title track as well as “Ready to Start”, but soon enough the filler begins to come in and drag the album down, so much so that by the time the end came I was rather disengaged with the material. There’s a whole lot to love here, but enough unimportant songs to merit me calling it their weakest outing yet. Mind you, I’m speaking relatively, so it’s not BAD. In fact, its parts can be excellent.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Arcade Fire - Ready to Start | ||||
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| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Exclusive - Arcade Fire - Month of May | ||||
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The Suburbs, contrary to popular belief, is not your stereotypical “down with the dehumanizing suburbs!” piece of art, but instead it is merely a meditation. Butler himself was raised in a suburb of Houston, and throughout the album he reflects on the life he had growing up. While it is not always successful, the album still holds a certain amount of power. This is not a guy who knows nothing about the suburbs blindly condemning them, but a man who has a vast array of opinions on the life amongst the white picket fences.
Arcade Fire can easily get too caught up in its own grandiosity, something I think they toned down on with The Suburbs, but you can never accuse them of not being innovative. Their success thrills me and leaves me wondering what new bands could come out of it. In a land where most music stays in the box, Arcade Fire exists entirely outside it, for better or for worse. Mostly better. It’s an acquired taste, but I have a feeling if you get into it you’ll have no choice but to enjoy yourself.
I leave you with two things:
-A link to TheWildernessDowntown.com, where you can find a beyond awesome interactive music video set to “We Used To Wait” off of The Suburbs. All you need to do is enter your childhood home and you’re off.
-And here is the music video to what is perhaps my favorite individual song by Arcade Fire: “Rebellion (Lies)”.
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