The Arcade Fire - Funeral

RE*AC*TOR

Initial thoughts...

Wankstain! Another feckin' indie/alt/pop piece of crap. Tragically hip garbage no doubt. Why not just call all these bands "The Killers Version #". I rememeber a time not so long ago that I would have been thrilled to see the charts filled with guitar based bands - bands who write their own music, as opposed to Britney/Justin/Spice Girls/Backstreet Boys etc. It was a very bad time for music. It made me feel physically ill - contrived and fabricated music everywhere. Pretty faces singing inane lyrics to dull electronic beats. You cannot doubt, however, that there has been a change of focus to a certain extent. The saccharin-sweet stuff has stepped back a little. Enter Coldplay, Avril Lavigne, The Killers, Keane, etc etc etc etc. (The list goes on and on). To greater and lesser degrees this new breed of bands range from being just as manufactured as the out-and-out pop crap that preceeded it (Ms Lavigne) to being such a bland and blatant facsimile of other bands (Coldplay = bastard child of Travis and (early) Radiohead) that their very existence (and success) is a slap in the face to all the original, brilliantly creative bands out there that never make it. I hate these bands. They are diluting the pool so much that its becoming hard to identify good music anymore. They made me listen to Enya! Enya for **** sake! Anyway its with this level of (un)healthy skepticism that I go into listening to The Arcade Fire. I haven't listened to them before and know nothing about them.


Interestingly an 8 piece band created this album - although it seems that the drummer, Howard Bilerman, has subsequently been shafted. As you can imagine they're not all playing guitar and looking pretty; their musical range goes from the usual guitar, drums, bass to the more unconventional piano, violin, viola, cello, xylophone, keyboard, accordion and the hugely underused harp (no longer just synonomous with crappy beer). Anyway with all this I think I'll make a mental note to catch these in concert - just to catch the onstage madness of all this going on at once. Its no Polyphonic Spree, but its something....

Anyway - on with the review. This is a very good album. The first half of the album centres around a quartet of songs called Neighborhood #1, #2, #3 and #4. The most striking thing about the album is that its very balanced. This is where it separates itself from most of the other "music" being promoted at the moment. Its not an album of repetition, its constantly surprising with changes in tempo, unusual time signatures and some well above average lyrics. As is my want - I'll go through this on a track by track basis.

1. Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels). As with a lot of this album the lyrics touch on home, family and parents. The song descibes a post-apocalyptic-ish scenario. The neighourhood in question being buried under snow. Musically its just really cool. No major changes of tempo in this one - solid drum and bass beat, interesting piano work in the background. Good kick-off.

2. Neighborhood #2 (laika). Really strong lyrics - among the best I've seen in a while. "When daddy comes home you always start a fight, so the neighbors can dance in the police lights".The song is quicker in tempo, with plenty of chages in tempo. Screeching guitars, lots of violin (viola?).

3. Une année sans lumiere. Yes I forgot to mention they're from Montreal - which explains the French. Starts of as a simple song. Gentle, almost lulling. It threathens to take off a few times with slight increases in tempo and Waterboy-eque "woos". Eventually, just when you think its not going to take off - it does building up to a frenetic crescendo and then abruptly ending. It reminds me of a Pixies song but I can't think which one and its really bugging me. Answers on a postcard....

4. Neighborhood #3 (power out). Starts off as frenetic as Une année sans lumiere ends, changes tempo to something more resembling George Formby with a yukelele (albeit with drums, guitar et. al.). Actually a more conventional song than the rest (#26 in UK singles chart), and maybe drags on a little.

5. Neighborhood #4 (7 kettles). A more traditional folk song. Violins being put to use in a way that wouldn't seem out of place in the soundtrack for Oh Brother, Where art thou. If someone put this on and told me it was Wilco or Uncle Tupelo - I wouldn't have took them for a liar. Good song though.

6. Crown of Love. If this were on vinyl - this would be the start of side B. There is a notable change in tone from the first side. This culminates in bursting into what I can only describe as a disco inferno-esque beat at the end. Its head-noddingly good - but like Une année sans lumiere - its moreso marks the end of the song rather than going anywhere with it.

7. Wake up. Start of with the beat from Feel Good Hit of the Summer (QOTSA), add one part Polyphonic Spree and one part Flaming lips - that's this song. That might say something about the originality of the band - not sure if its good or bad - but the combination, whether intentional or not, certainly works quite well.

8. Haiti. The female vocalist takes the lead in this, largely political song. The vocalist (wife of the male vocalist) was born in Haiti. Which explains the link. More of a lament than anything, its segues nicely into....

9. Rebellion (Lies). This is the most obvious single of the album. Though maybe still a little unconventional for modern taste. Still, it is catchy, relatively high tempo and doesn't sound to dissimilar from The Killers.

10. In the back seat. Another morbid song. Fairly gentle in mood and tempo.


Several band members experienced deaths in their respective families during production of the album. The influence is laid on thick on the whole album. It varies from lamenting to anger - and from the point of view of artistic expression - its wonderful. It will be interesting to hear their follow-up work. Ideally I would have liked a previous album to compare with - to see if the personal tragedies affected the music to as large an extent as I think (like Neil Young's dark trilogy following the deaths on Danny Whitten and Bruce Berry). It is an album I will most likely listen to again. I can't tell whether its going to be a true classic. It certainly has potential - there are times when the album is firmly placed in the context of the current wave of indie-lite bands, but it doesn't linger there. I wouldn't say its ever wildly original, but there are sparks of inspiration that unfold with repeated listens.


My rating: RE*AC*T


Rating Guide:
R - RE* - Crap, appauling ****, may release one passable single eg. Deep Blue Something
RE*A - RE*AC* - Not bad, maybe run-of-the-mill or genre music - worth one listen eg. The Thrills.
RE*AC*T - RE*AC*TOR - Excellent, original, permanent music collection resident eg Neil Young, Bob Dylan.