Arcade Fire Band • Page 6

Kind of surprised about the love for Reflektor. I strongly dislike at least half of that record. The second half is better than the first, but it’s still a way weaker album than what came before it. Better than Everything Now though.

 

I’m touch and go with Reflektor, pretty let down by Everything Now, but those first three albums would probably all be in my top fifty. Suburbs is close to the top spot.

 

I'm a full on weirdo with this band because The Suburbs is my least favorite album by them

I like Everything Now, "We Don't Deserve Love" is such a gorgeous song.

 

didn't vibe with Reflektor but that's partly because the marketing campaign was exhausting

 

I’m still a Neon Bible, guy.

 

Funeral is a perfect album and one of the best debuts of all time. Suburbs and and Neon Bible are both excellent and not far behind. Reflektor is okay but really hit-or-miss. Everything Now is a turd except for two or three songs.

 

It’s wild how amazing Creature Comfort is compared to the rest of the album.

 

I absolutely despised Everything Now bar a couple of songs but they were on a great run up to that point. Hopefully it was just a blip and they can recover from it, and Win Butler from Lead Singer Syndrome.

 

I was never a fan of The Suburbs overall

 

Any particular reason why?

 

There are three or four songs I like a lot but otherwise, it just didn’t grab me. Funeral and Neon Bible gripped me immediately front-to-back and that didn’t happen with this one. And I’ve fallen off AF in general since then really.

 

Lol, just looked it up on Wikipedia and I had no idea it was inspired by the suburbs The Woodlands down here in Texas. I wouldn’t even call them suburbs, they’re one of the richest areas in Texas, haha

 

The Suburbs is definitely my favorite Arcade Fire album. Funeral and Neon Bible have higher highs, but The Suburbs is such a great album-length statement.

 

The final chorus of The Suburbs when Regine comes in is one of the most chilling moments in all of music.

 

My old friends
I can remember when
You cut your hair
I never saw you again
Now the cities we live in
could be distant stars
And I search for you
in every passing car

Still one of my favorite stanzas along with:

The last defender
of the sprawl
Said "Well, where do you kids live?"

Well, sir,
if you only knew
what the answer's worth

Been searching
every corner
of the earth

Can’t believe it’s been a decade already. One of my favorites and I must have listened to this over and over that year. I loved the campaign behind it.

 

Their first two have better peaks but The Suburbs is probably my favourite Arcade Fire record.

 

minus the part about falling off AF since, I’m in the same place with suburbs. I have tried to make it not the case so many times! Just doesn’t pull me in. It defies logic too, because I agree with all of the positive observations about the record. It’s actually one of my biggest personal music mysteries haha

 

Agree. I don’t follow this band in the press enough to know: what’s Win been doing? Showing off or something?

 

His entire vibe during the Everything Now cycle was way off honestly, part of the reason why I came down so hard on that album.

 

Fair enough...all I can I remember fright now is a cereal or something from that rollout.

 

Listening back through The Suburbs this morning and put on the bonus tracks as well. Culture War in particular feels incredibly prescient and damning from the opening lines all the way back in 2010:

Now the future's staring at me
Like a vision from the past
And I know these crumbs they sold me
They're never going to last
Though we know the culture war
We don't know what it's for but
We've lived the southern strategy
You know it's never going to last
So keep it in the past

Jump to the end of the song after Winn spends the majority of it railing against conservatives for carrying on with their archaic politics and it gets particularly chilling to listen to now:

Now the kids are growing up so fast
And paying for our crimes
We'll be soldiers for you, mommy and daddy
In your culture war
We'll be soldiers for you, mommy and daddy
But we don't know what it's for

We're soldiers now
in the culture war
We're soldiers now
but we don't know what it's for

So tell me what's it for

You want it? You got it
here's your culture war
You want it? Now you've got it
so tell me what's it for

 

Review: Arcade Fire – The Suburbs

Retrospective review from @Craig Manning

 

This was a great read and sums up everything I love about the record.

 

The second to last paragraph is so damn spot on.