Fuck yeah!
Clocking in at just over an hour, you certainly get your moneys worth from the Canadians and a band with this much to offer certainly hasn’t run out of ideas but you felt it when you listened to their second album, ‘Neon Bible’ too that they hadn’t quite thrown the kitchen sink at you the way they had with their debut album, ‘Funeral’. This is no reason to be disappointed though. You are still getting quality work.
The album is book-ended by two parts of the title track, ‘The Suburbs’, a gentle strolling number that sucks you in, seduces you and softens you up for the signature blast off of ‘Ready To Start’, a track that could nestle happily in between any track on their second offering. Good enough so far, I say.
Footstomping headbanger ‘Modern Man’ follows and echoes 70′s era Springsteen and Neil Young similarly to some of their previous works before ‘Rococo’ reprises that lovely, repetitive, stumbling groove they do so well. Melancholy and loss abounds in ‘City With No Children’ as the title suggests but still at a thumping pace before songs with parts and brackets ‘Half Light I & II (No Celebration)’ let us know for sure we’re halfway into an ‘Arcade Fire’ record. It’s happened just like that, you see! Two lovely parts of the kind of crowd-bouncing stuff you expect to provoke thousands of sweaty undulating teens into frotting themselves into a frenzy to. Fnarr!
‘Suburban War’ sounds like you’ve turned the record over and have been introduced to part II. (I miss that about music!). It abandons the riffy decadence of the first half for a lovely bit of jangly arpeggio then goes all punk rock stomp with ‘Month Of May’. ‘Wasted Hours’ offers light relief in swaying singalong style before ‘Deep Blue’ offers you a real crescendo to the album. It’s head-bopping as you dare with a la.. la-la.. la-la.. lala chorus.
You’re right in it then with ‘We Used To Wait’, a piano-driven, boom-cha that even goes a little bit MGMT in the chorus. Then it’s songs with parts and brackets again. Pure epic post rock magic here. ‘Sprawl I’ (flatland)’ and ‘Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)’. Heartbreaking strings, accordion, lyrics about childhood and the first time something happened to someone that could have easily been you… all that magic stuff we’ve come to expect and before you know it, you’re listening to ‘Ready To Start’ again. And you really don’t mind.
Enjoy!
Rafter
baz
It’s essentially a rollercoaster album. Really great opening, massive lull in the middle that verges on boredom, then a superb climax at the end, typified by the genius that is Sprawl II.
The album is a grower, but by no means a classic in my opinion, and I’ll be revisiting Funeral and Neon Bible first to get my Arcade Fire in coming years.
That’s pretty harsh, man! Listen to ‘Suburban War’ and ‘We used to wait’ on their own. The stages in this record make me pine for double gatefold when you got to work your way through four sides of gorgeous, gorgeous vinyl eagerly prying the liner notes for encouragement. The yoof don’t know what they’re missing, brother!