If you're going to release a double cd, then you've got to earn it, and Arcade Fire do that with Reflektor. It's partly through ensuring that the two cds are pretty different in sound - the first rockier, the second more expansive...in their different ways, both are kind of dancey, and also kind of not. (Flipping through a Rolling Stone earlier today, I saw a phrase about indie-pop's adorable crush on disco, in the context of Tegan and Sara's Heartthrob, and Arcade Fire definitely have some kind of relationship with it too, albeit to generally more sombre effect.)
The first disc is higher energy, with clearer drums and beats, more guitar, and vocals more to the foreground (Win does all the lead singing on Reflektor, though Regine's presence is still felt on many of its songs) and a closer - albeit only really in relative terms - relationship to the mainstream of rock music (though the pair near its back end which are the most straight-up on the album are both essentially placed in quote marks - "Normal Person" by the plug-in and feedback that opens it, and the jangly "You Already Know" with an introductory voice announcing the band's name); the second takes a spacier, more slowed-down route and includes my two current favourites, "Awful Sound (Oh Eurydice)" and "It's Never Over (Oh Orpheus)", as well as the delightful "Afterlife" (speaking of which, this made my day when I saw it).
Then again, there's plenty that holds across the whole set - the unexpected change-ups and transitions which have always been a hallmark for them (going back as far as "Wake Up"), the odd instrumental choices that you don't consciously notice till you focus on them, the sense that what's in play here are more pieces of music than conventional pop songs, and lots and lots of hooks (again, often coming from unexpected directions).
You can play spot the influences with them, but Arcade Fire have always sounded more like themselves than any combination of others, and over the course of Funeral, Neon Bible, The Suburbs and now Reflektor - four outstanding albums in a row - they've carved out a distinctive musical identity and one which continues to grow in interesting ways each outing...they're turning out to genuinely be something a bit special.
The first disc is higher energy, with clearer drums and beats, more guitar, and vocals more to the foreground (Win does all the lead singing on Reflektor, though Regine's presence is still felt on many of its songs) and a closer - albeit only really in relative terms - relationship to the mainstream of rock music (though the pair near its back end which are the most straight-up on the album are both essentially placed in quote marks - "Normal Person" by the plug-in and feedback that opens it, and the jangly "You Already Know" with an introductory voice announcing the band's name); the second takes a spacier, more slowed-down route and includes my two current favourites, "Awful Sound (Oh Eurydice)" and "It's Never Over (Oh Orpheus)", as well as the delightful "Afterlife" (speaking of which, this made my day when I saw it).
Then again, there's plenty that holds across the whole set - the unexpected change-ups and transitions which have always been a hallmark for them (going back as far as "Wake Up"), the odd instrumental choices that you don't consciously notice till you focus on them, the sense that what's in play here are more pieces of music than conventional pop songs, and lots and lots of hooks (again, often coming from unexpected directions).
You can play spot the influences with them, but Arcade Fire have always sounded more like themselves than any combination of others, and over the course of Funeral, Neon Bible, The Suburbs and now Reflektor - four outstanding albums in a row - they've carved out a distinctive musical identity and one which continues to grow in interesting ways each outing...they're turning out to genuinely be something a bit special.
