4. Reflektor: It's Arcade Fire's weakest album but it's certainly not bad. It's their Kid A moment and this one is hugely experimental and far quieter than any of the other albums. Experimentation is good much of the time and this, even if it took me 2 listens to like it, is a successful experiment overall. There is a sense of Arcade Fire losing their identity, some of the songs feel caged-in and muffled and Regine Chassagne doesn't get much to do. I feel that for the next album they do, it's be advisable not to go quite so far from what they did before, since at times this is both pretentious and portentous. Still, it's a fine record all the same. The instrumentals are delightfully unique and audacious, and like the other albums plenty of interesting themes are covered. Rather than being overwhelmingly stunning like the other 3, it's a quietly powerful work that slowly mesmerizes you with one audacious, beautifully played beat after another. Although, that hidden track was a waste of space.
3. Neon Bible: This is an excellent album with one of the best titles and album covers in recent memory. It's bigger, darker and more ambitious than its predecessor, though not quite as strong. It's a bit too cynical for its own good at times, and listening to all the songs in a row the album's epic music production and ceaselessly melancholy (And sometimes on the pretentious side) lyrics can become exhausting. Still, there's no denying this is a terrific work. It's an endlessly overwhelming work which uses the organ brilliantly and on a technical level it's somewhat masterful. It's use of instruments is truly astonishing, and the lyrics never cease to impress. With No Cars Go, Intervention and My Body is a Cage among many other Arcade Fire classics, we're spoiled for choice here.
2. The Suburbs: A glorious, titanic, superhuman juggernaut of an album that, with its breath-taking music and frequently tear-jerking lyrics, packs such a punch it makes being knocked out by an anvil look painless. A meditation of growing-up, the writing here is sheer poetry and the instrumentals could be the best Arcade Fire have ever done. At over an hour long, it's something of an odyssey and does get pretty exhausting at times. There are a few weaker ones (Wasted Hours I'm looking at you) although there aren't any actively bad ones. Starting out with the poetic, superbly written The Suburbs and then having the electrifying Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) as its penultimate track, it is really a roller coaster ride through many brilliant songs. Even the lesser ones are still interesting.
And the best is....
1. Funeral: It had to be Funeral. There isn't a single dull moment on this one. Rather than tying itself to one theme like the others do, this focuses on a variety of subjects and turns all of them into art. The music, whether it's the melancholy beauty of Tunnels, the heaviness of Power's Out, the soaring crescendo of Wake Up or even the much overlooked Haiti, never ceases to floor one in amazement with the brilliantly constructed tunes, amazing mixing and general uniqueness about it. This is one of my favorite albums of all time, and it's almost certainly the best album from the 2000s that weren't by Radiohead. While Radiohead are the defining band of the 21st century, Arcade Fire should not be forgotten. This is the closest they came to perfection. It's a bit depressing for its own good at times but without the self-indulgence of Reflektor, the repetition of Neon Bible and the over-length of The Suburbs, this is a modern classic, and thus far the greatest album Arcade Fire have produced. Long may they continue.
Thanks for reading.
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