Arcade Fire - The Suburbs Review

Story by Jacob Fricke 

| Published Sep 7, 2010

To anyone like myself, who was raised on radio rock, the appeal of the Arcade Fire has always been an enigma. 2004’s “Funeral” and 2006’s “Neon Bible” were met with near-universal acclaim and hailed as perfect examples of what contemporary indie music should be.

Yet I’ve never understood it. “Funeral” had a few interesting ideas, but nothing that hadn’t been done better elsewhere. “Neon Bible” struck me as precious little more than “Funeral”-era B-sides which had been left off the album for being neither different nor particularly interesting.

Sadly, this trend continues with the release of “The Suburbs,” Arcade Fire’s third release.To put it concisely, it does absolutely what the band hasn’t done before, instead showcasing a band that is more than content to rest on the laurels of 2004’s indie anthem “Wake Up.”

Much has been said of frontman Win Butler’s lyrics. However, instead of seeing cryptic, I saw lazy. Lead single and title track “The Suburbs” strikes me as very little more than self-pitying high school poetry, closing with the lines “in my dreams we’re still screaming, we’re still screaming, we’re still screaming.”

Sadly this trend continues on the rest of the album, with vague criticisms of society that seem to draw from on an ivory tower of “indie” success.

However, the lyrics would not be so poor if it weren’t for the music. It is at best uninteresting, and at worst a mush of muzak-worthy dentist office anthems. Everything that Arcade Fire has done before is back in full force: spacious guitar, hand claps, and vocals that sound as if they were recorded in a massive air duct. Generally inaudible bass and heavy crash symbol use also carry over from previous albums. At this point, the band seems to be looking to themselves for musical inspiration.

Ultimately, everyone who has enjoyed Arcade Fire in the past will appreciate the album. The rest of us, however, will stop, stare, and wonder what the big deal is.