Join the Musicheads to talk about Arcade Fire's "Neon Bible"

Where has all the discussion gone?!
I'd really like to hear any negative thoughts about the band and/or album, especially if you were a fan of the first but feel let down by this one. It seems that all the reviews are positive so far and then when there's no comments here I think...weird do they have awesome powers of mind manipulation or what!?

Mark,

Thanks for checkin' in. No complaints here. I think the album is brilliant! Maybe the peeps are liking the album so much that they are left speechless??

Anyone have any thoughts on Win smashing his guitar on SNL? I think that maneuver is getting old. To quote John Hiatt: "It breaks my heart to see them stars smashing a perfectly good guitar"

I just heard on the radio this discussion wasn't moving so I'll help out. And I'll just organize it as a series of comments. I think it was Mark Wheat who was talking about the bookends. I think Black Mirror holds its own as a song. "Un, duex, trois. Dis: Miroir Noir!" is a great foot-stomping moment. Keep the Car Running is as invigorating as Wake Up. But in different ways. The perfection of the pop melody is on Funeral. That has been replaced by the perfection of musical composition. (Unfortunately, I have a feeling that people appreciate pop melodies better than musical composition). I agree with the one who said Intervention is the best song on the album, and my hunch is that it has to do with Win Butler's voice. Doesn't he sing higher in this song than on all the others (ie. at the climactic chorus)? Funeral had more really emotional moments in Win's upper register which is more heartbreaking the more shakey it gets. Black Wave/Bad Vibrations is my second favorite because the transition is so surprising and the continuous eighth notes that the drum and glockenspiel (?) play along with the voice make it sound as unstoppable as a train. Favorite part of Ocean of Noise: "Not I." I also appreciate the transition in Well and the Lighthouse. I always do, I think. It's like the song rolls over. It destroys the sort of hegemonic conception that songs should be like "singles". Now about Antichrist Television Blues, I'm just realizing that the last three songs have had this same unstoppable eighth note thing. This was big on Funeral too, right? Maybe that's turning into a staple of pop music, if it wasn't already. Well anyways, I love the musical interlude on this one and favorite part of the song is: "I was working downtown for the minimum wage." Windowsill has the most singable chorus, but again, Win doesn't seem to want to go up to that scary, emotional octave (Bright Eyes style, right?). Why is No Cars Go good? Eighth notes again, maybe. And Mark Wheat was totally right that My Body is a Cage has cringe-worthy lyrics. Bad lyrics, especially if repeated, can totally RUIN a song. I have little sympathy for the music when rolling my eyes at the lyrics. I have to say that I'm a little surprised that such lyrics came from the same people that have been consistently giving us good ones. Who knows? I'd rather they take that one off and put on one of their studio outtakes. Maybe it was there because it's a good sound for the end of an album. Whatever. Cheers.

Anders, you heard my plea! Just a quick comment about the last song, My Body Is a Cage. I don't think it's a terrible song. However, when compared to the previous 40-odd minutes of the album, it really stands out as being the weakest track. The majesty of No Cars Go is so nearly overwhelming, it just seemed like the obvious place to conclude the disc. On that score, I'm not sure what the band was thinking.

(By the way, before when I said Wake Up, I meant Rebellion (Lies)). You know, obviously My Body Is a Cage is the weakest link and I don't think any of the songs on the whole album are terrible, but I just finished re-listening to Funeral and I think that on every count it's better. I said before that Neon Bible has "the perfection of musical composition" which now I think is just the way that I was expressing how glad I was to see them fitting so many instruments into so many songs at the same time. And of course the way that the music was recorded and mixed must have been much more sophisticated that Funeral. So now I'm thinking that Funeral was a better album (and that Arcade Fire is like all other hyped indie bands who spring from Zeus's head "fully-formed" but fail to perform in their sophomore season as we expect them to). At least when Funeral was less orchestrated, it had more melodies to attach yourself to. In comparison, Neon Bible is kind of bland musically. There's inspriration, no doubt, but there seems to be much more variety in Funeral. I think the best way to recognize this is in the lyrics. Funeral has lyrics that evoke ten thousand times as many images as Neon Bible. Let's do a quick comparison:

"And if my parents are crying, then I'll dig a tunnel from my window to yours"
"He tore our images out of his pictures, he scratched our names out of all his letters."
"And there's something wrong in the heart of man, take it from your heart put it in your hand."
"They say a watched pot won't ever boil, you can't raise a baby on motor oil..."
"I carved your name across my eyelids, you pray for rain, I pray for blindness."
"We're just a million little God's turning rainstorms turning every good thing to rust."
"Alice died in the night, I've been learning to drive my whole life, I've been learning."

I know these quotes come in the order of the album, but I really challenge you to find any lyrics as vivid as these in Neon Bible. And I know that critics aren't really in the business of comparing which lyrics are more inspirational than others. And maybe it's because I've spent a few YEARS now with Funeral that I feel like I know all the nuances of the lyrics as they relate to the music, etc. But still my initial feeling is that the lyrics in Neon Bible are weaker on a whole. Take for instance

"They know my name cause I told it to them, but they don't know where and they don't know when It's coming, when It's coming."

This is so vague that it's hard to associate any emotions to it. And there's a lot of other moments in Neon Bible where the lyrics aren't terrible but they really don't transfix you as Funeral did.

By the way, after relistening to Funeral, I realized that I'm totally right about the accentuated eighth note thing. Obviously it's more complicated than that: they mix everything up. But I think the hallmark of an Arcade Fire song would be the andante pace in four four measure with accented eighth notes. It is a great way to take your heart from your chest and to hold it hostage for 4 minutes. And also I think I was right about Win Butler's singing. Listen to Funeral again and you can hear him singing louder and higher than in Neon Bible. Maybe he messed up his voice doing this on tour and wised up. And if he smokes, then definitely that's what happened. And that's ok. But let's not forget that maybe we liked Funeral because of that shakey, scarey warble.

== sigh == Well Mark I finally caught the podcast and still haven't heard the entire album, but at some point the good headphones will come out and Neon Bible will get the living room floor listen.

So far, everything heard is very lush and confident. Time and a full listen with tell if the use of various instruments (Folks you want a list? You'll have to listen to the podcast...) works all the way through.

In the podcast Tony, you said something about the lyrics that sticks:

"...it allows you to maybe come up with a meaning that is that totally irrespective of what the band is even trying to communicate..."

Sounds promising. Really, when was the last time you heard that about an album? I do like to know what songs are about from the artists themselves, and don't have that problem with "the-video-destroys-the-listener's-creativity" but I like the idea of people making these songs their own. Even if it takes time to find the associations. Anders please share if and how this album grows on you.

As to various points about "religious" lyrics and sound... hmm. I hear some reverence here, and no religion – nor even love itself – corners the market on reverence. 'Bout time an artist cracked that open and sounded sincere. If that's why that one song rings so poorly, so be it.

p.s. to Bill - I get that Rock-n-Roll has an outlaw streak, and that musicians often are part scoundrel. Hey, that's what makes them so damn tempting. But I've seen guitars made by hand and it makes me strangely sick to see them smashed.

I tried to post a couple of times in this thread before, but I kept getting error messages and the page would hang. *shrug*

Basically, I think there's four or five really really great songs, but there's 2-3 filler tunes on here, too. Kind of like 'Funeral.' Combine the best moments on both and you have quite an album. However, they're one of the best live bands I've seen, according to audience participation and just plain passion.

I just picked up the Arcade Fire CD and have given it a couple of casual listens. Nothing's blowing my mind right off the bat, but I do definitely hear the Echo and The Bunnymen/Ian McCullough sound coming through and I love them so... It will probably be a "grower' CD on me and it will show it's true awesomeness after several more listens.

Also picked up the new Sloan CD as well, finally. Again, have only casually listened to it, but I love power-pop, so it's a gimme. I think that makes MH 4/5 on influencing recent purchases. Lily Allen (which is too much fun), Sloan, Arcade Fire, and The Shins (a brilliant album). At this rate, I'll be eating ramen again until next payday. Thanks, guys.

Looks like the people have spoken. Arcade Fire debuted at #2 on the Billboard charts!

Combine the best moments on "Funeral" and "Neon Bible" and you have one of the great albums of all time. However, the music world doesn't work like that in real life (only in our music geek fantasies...), so I basically agree with moozeekfan. The record sags a bit in the middle, but it's as if they know that people are going to be riveted up through "Intervention", then they'll keep on listening to get to "(Antichrist Television Blues)" and then stay on for the big finish.

I had a concluding paragraph typed up, but I deleted it and decided instead just to say that it is, indeed, as good as "Funeral".