Arcade Fire. They were brought to life with a
Funeral, they found their cult following thanks to a
Neon Bible, and now in their yet-to-be-released third album, they want to settle down in
The Suburbs. If the first four tracks that have been released are anything to go by, so far, they're unfortunately not quite rockin'
The Suburbs. Will it be another
Funeral, often touted as one of the best indie releases of the past decade? Or was the
Funeral actually their curtain call, dead before they ever begun? Let's just pray to God that it's not going to be another
Neon Bible disappointment.
Regardless of the massive mostly negative pre-hype building, fans will still 'buy' an album so that they can voice their disgruntled/adoring opinions on Pitchfork. The boys and girls from Montreal will also be doing a secret warm-up gig somewhere in London, sometime in early July, but the sneaky bastards won't tell you where or when unless you
preorder a copy of their album. They clearly don't understand social networking media. That's only going to work if they can put an Arcade Firewall on Twitter.
Here's the full track list:
'The Suburbs'
'Ready to Start'
'Modern Man'
'Rococo'
'Empty Room'
'City With No Children'
'Half Light I'
'Half Light II (No Celebration)'
'Suburban War'
'Month of May'
'Wasted Hours'
'Deep Blue'
'We Used to Wait'
'Sprawl I (Flatland)'
'Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)'
'The Suburbs (continued)'
Yeah, we know: 16 tracks. It's kind of long. And the Fire aren't exactly known for two minute bursts of power pop. This is going to turn into the type of album to have a long bath to. A long, bubbly, hot, enveloping bath. You'll come out the other end feeling clean, refreshed and satisfied; but you may have shriveled up like dried prune.
There have been four songs released so far, two officially and two not-so-officially. The first two which were leaked were originally touted as fakes, as surely Arcade Fire couldn't produce songs that boring. The first of these, the title and opening track 'The Suburbs', sounds like a pretty standard Arcade Fire fare: rhythmic, catchy and falsetto. It has a country-Dolly-Parton feel to the verses though, which is more so just weird than original. The second, 'The Month of May' isn't much better. It sounds like they tried to be TV on the Radio, but failed. It's organised punk pop, and incredibly un-typical. But unlike when a band you know and love steps away from the expected to give you something new and amazing, this single just rehashes the same old shit that every other band has been doing for decades.
The second two were officially released as the lead singles in the UK and the US ('We Used To Wait' and 'Ready To Start' respectively – can you tell the album's theme yet?). 'We Used To Wait' starts well; it has a simple keys chord progression and some static, and then builds up and breaks down in that way that Arcade Fire brought to the forefront of cerebral indie rock. But then... nothing really happens. No climax, no great swell of emotion; it just kind of peters out. But it will be stuck in your head for the next hour. However, 'Ready To Start' has the potential for the 'Wake Up' of the third album. It is driving, has a slow crescendo, and then explodes into massive sing-a-long territory. Still though, it's missing the spiked punch in the face that we have come to expect.
All up? If the first four songs are anything to go by, this record almost sounds like it has been rush released. The lyrics, normally phenomenal and obscure, all point towards laziness. 'The Month of May' talks about making a record in the month of way, and 'We Used To Wait' basically gives us the instruction manual for how to write an alternative ballad hit (We used to wait / we used to wait / now we scream / and sing the chorus again). Over. And over. And over.
What do you think?
'The Suburbs':
'The Month of May':
'We Used To Wait':
'Ready To Start':