Arcade Fire The Suburbs (Mercury)
4/5
By: Rachel Bolland
Arcade Fire have never been a band afraid of making grand statements. 2007’s Neon Bible contained some of the biggest arrangements heard on a modern indie rock album, ‘Intervention’ being one of the most majestic moments on there (that organ!). And while The Suburbs carries on that tradition to an extent, it seems like the Canadian septet have pulled things back a little, having less to prove with this LP than they did with the “difficult second album” that came before it. They’re releasing their new record into a world where they’re firmly established as one of the best and most well respected bands around, and while there were ridiculously high expectations surrounding its release, The Suburbs sees them rise to the challenge magnificently.
Throughout the record, they provide song after song that cements their almost pristine reputation in the music world. There seems to be more of a classic rock and roll influence on The Suburbs compared to their older material, with ‘Month of May’ providing a slice of pure Americana. ‘Ready to Start’, meanwhile, is a superb rock song where the power of this album really catches you and the album truly makes its impact. They even stray into 80s pop territory with ‘Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)’ and ‘City With No Children’, whose haunting lyrics contrast beautifully with the music. The eponymous opening track, which in a wonderfully cyclical way is revisited as the album’s closer, sees Win Butler exploiting his strangely beautiful vocals to their full effect, swinging between an almost eerie falsetto and a deep baritone and including everything in between. It’s coupled with typically morose lyrics (“So can you understand why I want a daughter while I’m still young…show her the beauty/before all this damage is done”) but contrasted with an unexpectedly upbeat instrumental.
While The Suburbs is arguably more accessible than Arcade Fire’s earlier albums, there are still moments where it’s incredibly ambitious. ‘Rococo’ is a wonderful tale of misunderstood youth underpinned by the use of repetition and backed by incredibly lush strings. Building into a fierce climax, the repeated cry of the song’s title is left ringing in your ears long after you’ve moved on. In some ways, The Suburbs seems to lack something by not being quite as ambitious as Neon Bible. For me, there’s no moment where you’re struck dumb by the power of the tracks, nor any that send shivers down the spine the way, say, ‘My Body is a Cage’ did. However, this record contains tracks that are consistently excellent and are still so distinctive that they show that, while they may be less esoteric, the band has not become complacent in their overwhelming success.
Arcade Fire have always had the ability to write incredibly powerful, imposing songs that somehow maintain a beautiful elegance about them. The sheer size of the band and the huge abundance of talent they each possess means that they’re able to do things that many other bands can’t - there are also few other bands that would have the balls. The instrumentation and the epic arrangements used herein have led to something truly unique and incredibly deserving of the critical and commercial success it’s sure to receive. The Suburbs proves that whatever it was that first launched Arcade Fire into the stratosphere, that unknown element that has made them so popular yet allowed them to retain their credibility (the Holy Grail for all bands?), they haven’t lost it quite yet.
Artists in this article: Arcade Fire
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