Music Banter - Arcade Fire

Hope Davey Moore doesnt mind me stepping in and adding my thoughts to this quality album.

Arcade Fire - Funeral
(2004)

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Tracks

1 Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels) 4:48
2 Neighborhood #2 (Laïka) 3:32
3 Une Année Sans Lumière 3:40
4 Neighborhood #3 (Power Out) 5:12
5 Neighborhood #4 (7 Kettles) 4:49
6 Crown of Love 4:42
7 Wake Up 5:35
8 Haïti 4:07
9 Rebellion (Lies) 5:10
10 In the Backseat 6:20

Formed in Montreal, Canada in 2003, Arcade Fire shot to prominence with the rather wonderful Arcade Fire EP released in the same year on the record label Merge. Demonstrating a real talent for mood creation, eccentricity combined with theatrical arrangement and performances, Arcade Fire were always destined to write a modern day classic. And so it was in September 2004, Funeral was released on the Merge record label.

Led by Husband and Wife team Win Butler and Régine Chassagne and backed by a group of fine musicians, the album became a worldwide underground success story whilst gradually snowballing into a complete monster.

Speaking from a British point of view, their success was down in some ways to their exceptional and powerful live performances in small venues. Thanks to gaining a real reputation through first hand experience and more importantly word of mouth, Arcade Fire gradually became the band of choice for many a young adult, with Funeral becoming the album to own in a post Is This It world.

The album begins with Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels), a rather beautiful song yet with undertones of love and loss, it contains all the hallmarks of what people now perceive Arcade Fire to be all about, with an almost Ian Curtisesque vibe running alongside splendid and complex musical arrangements, Indie but not as we know it for sure.

Neighborhood #2 (Laika) follows, a tale of adolescent frustration and of course desperation, the soundtrack and vocals are just as compelling as the lyrics, with its manic strings and almost bellowing theatrical vocals, yes the song could be described as “over the top”, but that’s the point surely.

One thing that Arcade Fire managed to do so unbelievably well with this release, is to walk that fine line between credibility and commerciality, something they do effortlessly with track four Neighborhood #3 (Power Out), its our first chance to see this talented band walk this fine line with triumphant results. The rhythm and the beat of this little number is truly outstanding, almost satisfyingly so.

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After the wonders of Power Out, we’re brought back to earth with the gorgeous Crown of Love, with its layer upon layer of stunning mood creation song writing, as songs go it really is quite a remarkable achievement, especially with its rampaging finale.

Track 7, Wake Up, and Track 9 Rebellion (Lies) once again take us to Arcade Fire pop heaven, both songs would become the crowd favourites at many an Arcade Fire gig, with the latter normally involving a stage invasion from all angles by the audience, and Wake Up just becoming the anthem for 2004.

Not to be outdone, the wife of the partnership, Régine Chassagne, has two numbers on the album which to be fair are just brilliant songs. Haiti combines the avant-garde of Nico with the landscaping of a god, and as for the albums closer In The Backseat, well for me this is the albums finest moment.

Music at its best should stay with you always and should either reflect your mood or at least make you feel glad to be alive, but what Arcade Fire has created is an album for all moods; as gritty as it is beautiful, as dark and gloomy as it is joyful and pleasurable. It really is a flawless piece of song writing and musical creation, a modern day classic if ever there was one.