Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

5.0

0.0 (0)

Showing the music world that if you’re good enough, creating an accessible, listenable concept album that reaches number 1 on the US, UK and Canadian charts on debut via an independent label CAN be done, Arcade Fire mark their return with an album that demands (and deserves) to be listened to as one piece.

One always got the feeling that following up the OK (but not the masterpiece it was held up to be) Neon Bible (2007) was always going to be an easy task for  Arcade Fire – but what was it going to be about next?

Their debut, Funeral was notionally a genial concept album about the notion of home, Neon Bible a more distinct cry to get to the city, bringing along with it stadium-sized sounds. So what is The Suburbs? As front-man Win Butler said in an interview with NME the album "is neither a love letter to, nor an indictment of, the suburbs - it's a letter from the suburbs.” The lyrical theme on this album is evident as the first track, The Suburbs, almost jangles out of the speakers and provides the perfect segue into Ready to Start, the first sign of intent and angst on the album.

The influences are obvious, story-telling like Springsteen or Neil Young, with a musicianship that is only, and unabashedly, trademark Arcade Fire.  This is an album that, at just over 63 minutes long requires a commitment to listen, that is handsomely rewarded as the songs unfold. The production on the album is amazing, blending perfectly atmosphere with restrained drive, angst and beautiful, lush soundscapes. Empty and full at the same time.

Half Light and Half Light II (No Celebration) with Sprawl (Flatland) and Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) are the two-part highlights on the album, and along with The Suburbs provide the thematic chemistry that holds the album together. Suburban War is the stand-out track, exploring the central themes of what a suburb, and therefore the sociological concept of the album, brings with it; feelings of alienation, abandonment, shattered dreams and a yearning for something better.

The weak points? Rococo is the greatest link to Neon Bible, and the weakest spot in the armor on the album. The quite, well, boring (in the context of the record as a whole) semi-punk of Month of May does little to entice. But they are exceptions to the rule.

It finishes as it starts, with a reprise of the opener The Suburbs neatly finishing off an outstanding effort.

This is the real deal. Arcade Fire haven’t been seeded from a marketing hype machine, remaining fiercely independent, taking their many fans the world-over on a journey of growth and discovery with each album.  They have also been helped by the the taste-makers and critics world-over.

The bad points? Not many, but will today’s iPod generation accept a 60+ minute album that demands the attention of an album? Will it survive shuffle? There is also the inclination of the band to almost over-dramatize their music, which at some points on the album, gets a little tedious. Just as this happens though, we're pulled right back on-track with a flourish or twist that only Arcade Fire could deliver.

We’ve seen The Suburbs described in other places as Arcade Fire’s own OK Computer or Automatic for the People, both accessible, brilliant concept albums, but that would be unfair to both Arcade Fire and those albums. The Suburbs is an original, extremely well put-together album that continues gets better with each listen (I’m on 12 now), somehow managing to reveal more of itself every time. A hall-mark of a classic.

ARCADE FIRE PERFORMING 'READY TO START' LIVE AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN RECENTLY

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