Arcade fire hail from Montreal, and centre pretty much around Win Butler and his wife Regine, who provide the vocals. Funeral is their full length debut - and was produced after the band dealt with the deaths of several family members within a very short space of time.
Track listing:
1. Neighborhood #1 (tunnels) 2. Neighborhood #2 (laika) 3. Une annee sans lumiere 4. Neighborhood #3 (power out) 5. Neighborhood #4 (7 kettles) 6. Crown of love 7. Wake up 8. Haiti 9. Rebellion (lies) 10.In the back seat
So, from the top! Neighborhood #1; Like nothing I've ever heard before. A heady mix of theatricality, intensity, insanity and an amazing hook. This song is by turns heartbreaking and uplifting, fitting when you realise its about love, death, the death of love and possibly a whole lot more. The lyrics walk a fine line between churlish and iconoclastic, definitely falling into the latter, genius, category. Lines like "sometimes we remember our bedrooms, and our parents bedrooms, and the bedrooms of our friends. Then we think of our parents, WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THEM?" Capitals necessary to convey what a crying, yelping, despairing, pained voice this is!
This is a song that if you heard it just the once and had to leave the house, you'd spend all day counting down the seconds til when you could get back and hear the rest of the album!
I bought this album on the strength of this one song - its without doubt the best I've heard this year, or last year, or possibly in the last five years...
Win sounds like his voice is going to, at any moment, careen out of control, never to return. Either that or he'll drop dead from sheer emotional exhaustion. Great stuff.
The weak link has gotta be Neighborhood #4 (7 Kettles)
Sadly, a little bit cringeworthy, from its lyric, "They say a watched pot/ never boils" to its predictible, boring, and schmaltzy chord progression. One to skip.
As for the rest of the album, it's pretty tight. Nothing, with the exception of maybe 'in the backseat', gets that close to rivalling that stellar first track (I swear, maybe God himself penned it) but by any other standards, this is fifty odd minutes of musical manna from heaven. Lyrics wobble into sketchy teritory at times but as some wise sage said "Emotion rescues anything from cliche". Here, Here!
So, An album which deal with daydreams, neglect, fighting in a family, and just sitting around waiting for life to happen to you. Along with the usual love and death!
Vocals are tomented, Will can shout, wail, whimper, and just sing. And his wife Regine offers equally angsty backing vocals. This is a good thing, because it takes good vocals to do justice to brilliant songwriting like this!
Musically, it will make your head spin. There's a blend of post-punk, rock, art-rock, pop, folk, classical, and much mpre. Woven together are xylophone, shimmering strings, swirling keyboard, piano, violins, and accordians. And they're all set to epic, crashing art-rock and disco rhythms.
If you even faintly like any of modest mouse, neutral milk hotel, roxy music, david bowie, get this album!
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And have you heard the 8 track EP they've released since? QUite different in parts but also really, really good.
dujour 09.11.2005 23:50
Oh, I do love 'Tunnels'! The lyrics are just beautiful. Nicely reviewed! c xx
JoePoirot 05.07.2005 10:17
I heard these guys on Jools Holland the other day and was quite blown away. They sounded like the most interesting band I've heard in quite a few months and I am buying their stuff this week without fail.
"Wake Up," a track from,Funeral, the debut full-length by Montreal's Arcade Fire, builds ... more
from a midtempo strum into a "You Can't Hurry Love" gallop, which singer Win Butler interrupts with a yell: "You better look out below!" Somehow, none of this hits...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
"Wake Up," a track from, Funeral, the debut full-length by Montreal's Arcade Fire, builds ... more
from a midtempo strum into a "You Can't Hurry Love" gallop, which singer Win Butler interrupts with a yell: "You better look out below!" Somehow, none of this hit...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
'Funeral' is the debut album from Canadian five piece The Arcade Fire. Written and ... more
recorded at a time when close family members of the band had passed away, the album draws on these experiences and mixes them with a sound which has been compared to the...
Advantages: Sublime Tracks, Beautiful Arrangement, Intriguing Lyrics, Intriguing Sound, Unique Disadvantages: The album sleeve could of been an album case
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May 1st, 2005
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