Funeral [Digipak] - Arcade Fire (The) > Reviews > Happy Sad

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Definitely a cut above the rest
Lyrics	Thought-provoking
Quality and consistency of tracks	Flawless
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Not applicable
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	Good production, good tunes and sentiments, doesn't outstay it's welcome
Disadvantages:	If you're not in the mood, it can seem borderline whiny

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

The Arcade Fire just appeared; when needed.

Prior to a news article I'd never come across any sort of 'new' band promotion. All I saw was a live shot of a group in waistcoats and a cool name. No gimmicks.
Glancing at a series of promising reviews I thought I'd give their debut proper (an EP precedes) a listen.

The reason why Funeral is a brilliant album - yep, I've been assimilated - is partly due to focus: a) At a little over 45 mins the album doesn't outstay it's welcome. b) The songs are simple with more focus on being emotionally sincere than show-off, and c) The production is almost ethereal, it's like the album just existed without being put together - although of course it was put together.

Arcade Fire are quite a unique package. I'll echo press reviews in that there's something familiar in them, yet something altogether fresh too.
Visually, The Arcade Fire are an antithesis to garage rock fashion, and the varied instrumentations (featuring violin) pull the spotlight away from the Hendrix tool.

You can hear Talking Heads in the quirky and polished tunes, and in singer Win Butler's voice (a bit of Bjork in wife and co-singer Regine Chassagne), and then I'm able to hear European portions in the Abba-esque grandeur, an occasional bit of Pulp, a bit of U2, and the Blondie 'Atomic' beat Franz Ferdinand built a career on.
And yet, mixing all this together doesn't appear to be a non-working hotchpotch. This is something different and raw.

With a title like Funeral (born of out members family tragedies), it's easy to estimate the weight of the album. But unlike say, Coldplay, it's not false despair. Infact it's easy to digest the sadness as it it's sincere and not at all overblown. Importantly, innocent playfulness and a bit of humour puts the essential warming contrast in the belly of it. From listening alone you get the feeling that this album was made more as a shedding of emotion than any commercial gain.

It did, however, take me a couple of listens to really get into the album and I think many listeners will find the same. The opening song however is beautiful from the opening seconds - the dreamy awakening of a simple guitar riff on Neighbourhood 1 (Tunnels) silently unravels into a heavily reverbed piano chorus. It also sets the chill and warm in the heart at the same time. The weather of this album is late Autumnal, early Winter (I hope I'm not losing you!)
3 more 'Neighbourhood' titled songs beg to show some kind of link but they really are quite apart from each other, to me.

The most charged moments include Une Annee Sans Lumiere (A Year Without Light), Crown Of Love and Wake Up...But then I hate ignoring the others as they're just as brilliant too, right down to the order of the songs on the album. And a good album has to have good artwork right? The brown sleeve is a perfect accompaniment to the colour of the mood.

I predict an even fertile future for this Canadian band if they keep on being humble, sincere and not succumbing to the image over substance that I fear a lot of British bands at least, are a victim of.

Funeral is worth every penny.