Mark offered his opinion of Arcade Fire’s new album The Suburbs a few days after its release. I finally had a chance to listen to the album uninterrupted for a few playthroughs last week during a business trip, and it is dynamite.
I don’t recall an album that is so unified in its theme. Did they choose the theme and then write the songs? Or did they realize that all of the songs they were writing were variations on a theme? Nostalgia, dissatisfaction, realizing that we are what we feared, swore we wouldn’t become, that what we aspired to in youth wasn’t realistic. Our cool has been obsoleted by a new cool that we can’t understand.
It seems I am at the same stage of life as Win and Co, so every song has meaning. I live in the suburbs, for better and worse. I’ve lost touch with old friends. I want to share the good things from my childhood with my children.
In short, I’m really enjoying the album, and think it’s their best yet. I also want to return to their previous two albums (Funeral and Neon Bible) looking for a similar unity – was it there and I missed it?
Favourite tracks so far: Ready To Start, Rococo, Sprawl II
