Arcade Fire

Funeral
Neon Bible

Funeral (Merge ’04) Rating: A
After a more tentative self-titled debut EP, this Montreal, Quebec band (led by the husband-and-wife team of Win Butler and Régine Chassagne) deliver an instant classic with this richly passionate full-length debut, which is so named due to the recent deaths of several band members’ relatives. Appropriately, this album is often sadly atmospheric and elegiac, yet their intense music is also undeniably joyous and life affirming. The band’s layered sound, replete with accordions, lush strings, shimmering guitars, delicate piano, and booming drums (as well as bells, whistles, synths, etc.), is at once instantly familiar (evoking The Cure, Van Morrison, U2, Kate Bush, Talking Heads, Neutral Milk Hotel, The Pixies, and various “emo” bands) yet entirely their own, and the album gets off to a galvanizing start on “Neighborhood # 1 (Tunnels)” (one of several songs about the neighborhood), which showcases Butler’s emotive, wavery, damn near hysterical vocals. Sad, atmospheric, and anthemic all at once, this song makes you want to sing out loud, as does the even more brilliant “Neighborhood # 2 (Laika),” which is distinguished by its staccato verses, militant beats, and some fantastic rhythmic surges. “Une Annee Sans Lumiere,” a delicate duet, provides a brief breather, though the song picks up with a barrage of jangly guitars towards the end. “Neighborhood # 3 (Power Out)” is definitely one of the album’s most intense tracks, its edgy energy recalling War-era U2, but “Neighborhood #4 (7 Kettles),” a pretty string-swelled ballad, is comparatively reserved, while “Crown of Love” continues the album’s rather sedate mid-section with some blue-eyed soul, at least until the end when it surprisingly shifts into a propulsive disco-y groove. The grandly epic “Wake Up” is arguably the album’s best song, as the band aims for the sky and scores with a big anthemic sing along, while Chassagne sings lead (as she does from time to time, though Butler is usually the lead vocalist) on their melodic ode to “Haiti,” whose most notable attribute is its hooky keyboards. “Rebellion (Lies)” is perhaps the album’s poppiest track, with yet another uplifting, rousing sing along chorus, while “In the Backseat” is another Chassagne showcase, this one a soaringly emotional Kate Bush-like ballad. Sure, charges of “pretentiousness” are likely to dog tracks such as this, but bombast is becoming on this band, as it allows their beautifully orchestrated yet often quite rocking anthems to ascend to soaring crescendos. It’s quite exhilarating most of the time, though perhaps some of the ballads get a bit boring at times and the band’s theatrical delivery can veer awfully close to being too over the top. Still, this band (consisting of several multi-instrumentalists) possesses considerable instrumental ingenuity, and these songs reveal hidden depths upon repeat listens (it took awhile for this album to grow on me but eventually I became damn near addicted to it). With 10 songs clocking in at a manageable 48:01, I know what album will top my “album of the year” ballot.

Neon Bible (Merge ’07) Rating: A-
It's hard enough to follow up a great debut album, let alone a serious "best album of the decade" contender like Funeral (just ask The Strokes), but by and large Neon Bible is up for the task, even if it inevitably falls short of its brilliant predecessor, on which the band seemed to spring from out of nowhere with a wonderfully strange, theatrical, and utterly unique new sound. This album seems more standard and doesn't quite deliver the same level of emotional highs and lows that I experience when listening to Funeral. Still, given how solid this second installment is I suppose that's nitpicking, for the band show off many of the same strengths as previously, chief among them being a richly colorful sound encompassing atypical instrumentation such as swelling strings, oddball accordion, and magical high-pitched piano. Also, the first-class rhythm section keeps the up-tempo tunes moving propulsively along, choir-like choruses provide more than a few rousing sing along moments, and Butler's world weary, increasingly pessimistic lyrics (and his delivery of them; he still sings lead about 3/4 of the time) have a poetic grace. Again, as on Funeral the band has a knack for delivering joyously uplifting music even when delivering disaffecting lyrics, and though the album has taken me longer to appreciate than Funeral and hasn't grabbed a hold of me nearly as tightly, Neon Bible is nevertheless an extremely strong sophomore set that confirms the band's standing as one of the best in the business today. Sure, the album has it's problems, for example the melody of "Keep The Car Running" echoes John Cafferty & The Beaver Brown Band's "On The Dark Side" a tad too closely, and "My Body Is A Cage" ends the album with a whiny whimper. But the band at their best remain a deeply powerful and affecting proposition, particularly on songs such as "Intervention," "Ocean Of Noise," "Windowsill," and "No Cars Go."

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