Tracks:
1. The Suburbs: 9/10 the best way to sum this up is as a musical kaleidoscope of nostalgia, heart, fear, youth, childhood, light, darkness and instrumental wizardry. Dazzling.
2. Ready to Start: 9/10 a rousing and inspiring song, which carries a familiar message but manages not to feel overly formulaic.
3. Modern Man: 8/10 it feels a bit too restrained at times, but it feels relevant and truthful and is as well played as ever.
4. Rococo: 8/10 lyrically, it's message about teenagers conforming is spot on, and it's more beautifully played, soulful Arcade Fire fare despite some overly quiet moments.
5. Empty Room: 8/10 a bit too minimalistic, but it boasts a typically brilliant blend of instruments and is full of energy.
6. City With No Children: 7/10 well played and reasonably engaging, but it manages to be both pretentious and simplistic at the same time.
7. Half Light I: 8/10 a mesmerising song fuelled by a fascinating and genuinely brilliant metaphor for growing up.
8. Half Light II (No Celebration): 9/10 it's certainly not cheerful, but it's breathtakingly powerful and despite being depressing it's depressing because it's being truthful, which certainly wasn't always the case with Neon Bible.
9. Suburban War: 10/10 yet another overwhelmingly powerful song, this is a showcase of Arcade Fire tackling more universal themes than you can shake a stick at with honesty, intelligence and emotion.
10. Month of May: 6/10 a well mixed but boring straight rock song which works best as a reminder of Arcade Fire's range rather than as a song.
11. Wasted Hours: 5/10 this says what the other songs on the album has said with obvious imagery and a dull instrumental background, making it an unnecessary addition to the album, although it's Arcade Fire so it's partially well done. I think it was called Wasted Hours for a reason.
12. Deep Blue: 8/10 I don't know exactly what it's even about. Something to do with machines? I don't know. It's a very good addition to the album though.
13. We Used to Wait: 8/10 it's got a good instrumental and ending and is a successful song even if it's difficult to care about someone not being able to write letters anymore.
14. Sprawl I (Flatland): 7/10 yet another song about growing up from this album, but still a good track.
15. Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains): 10/10 enchanting, hypnotic and downright heavenly, this could be the best song Arcade Fire have ever done. Even if it's not, it's the best to dance to.
16. The Suburbs (Continued): 7/10 a bit slight and quiet, but it hammers home the message of the album pretty well.
Best song: Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)
Worst song: Wasted Hours
Summary: Arcade Fire have produced another breath-taking album here. In terms of lyrics, it can be pretentious and repetitive but most of the time the intelligence, depth and honesty of the song writing stand tall above the bland lyrics of many pop songs. The instrumentals are completely brilliant, unique and flawlessly produced and mixed. The thing which truly makes this album work is the way it takes a normal suburb and turns it into a vivid, dark, beautiful and symbolic fictional universe which not only represents more universal themes than you can shake a stick at, but makes the Marvel Cinematic Universe look more boring than a 3 hour lecture on a science of paint drying.
Final rating: 9/10
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