The Arcade Fire are kind of a totemic outfit for me. It started with Funeral, which didn't immediately hit me, but over time sank in, deep. That was in '05, as I was falling into country music in a big way, and I remember thinking that it might just be the last rock album that I'd ever love - a thought that probably, on some level, also owed a bit to the record's summatory, (end-)of-an-era sound. Then came Neon Bible, and while I didn't take it quite as much to heart, it had a grandeur and scale, coupled with a sense of intimacy and a distinctly human core, which equalled Funeral - and, if anything, these days I'm more likely to find snatches of that second album running through my mind.
So the appearance of "The Suburbs" in record stores a few weeks ago was a welcome sight - and even more welcome was the discovery that, while their sound has evolved, they've still got whatever it is that set them apart from the beginning. The tides and oceanic surges of their earlier records are still here, but in a more subtle, smoother form, and the album's intricacies sit easily with the melodic thrills it offers up, song after song. The Suburbs is thoroughly of the now, but it also takes many of its cues from the 80s - the Arcade Fire have always had something of the anthemic flavour of early to mid period U2, but they've before never sounded as much like them, and there's a strong New Order flavour to several tracks, and even, a couple of times, synth washes that could have come direct from classic Cure or Joy Division.
There are plenty of highlights, but so far two songs have most demanded the replay button for me: "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)", coming on like a lost Tom Tom Club track, all spritely (spelling/meaning intended) anomie, and probably the sweetest pop song they've ever recorded; and the jangly, building-to-high-drama of "Suburban War"...I also especially like the "Ready to Start"-"Modern Man"-"Rococo" run near the start (that last in particular perilously close to ridiculous, yet instead rather brilliant). End to end, it's another great album from them - I know I'll get a lot more out of it, and it has me looking forward to the next.
