Highly Recommended: The Arcade Fire - "Funeral"

[boogieordie]

This album is simply amazing. I can't even articulate what I would say about this band and this album, so I'll let others do it for me.

The Arcade Fire
Funeral
[Merge; 2004]
Rating: 9.7

How did we get here?

Ours is a generation overwhelmed by frustration, unrest, dread, and tragedy. Fear is wholly pervasive in American society, but we manage nonetheless to build our defenses in subtle ways-- we scoff at arbitrary, color-coded "threat" levels; we receive our information from comedians and laugh at politicians. Upon the turn of the 21st century, we have come to know our isolation well. Our self-imposed solitude renders us politically and spiritually inert, but rather than take steps to heal our emotional and existential wounds, we have chosen to revel in them. We consume the affected martyrdom of our purported idols and spit it back in mocking defiance. We forget that "emo" was once derived from emotion, and that in our buying and selling of personal pain, or the cynical approximation of it, we feel nothing.

We are not the first, or the last, to be confronted with this dilemma. David Byrne famously asked a variation on the question that opens this review, and in doing so suggested a type of universal disaffection synonymous with drowning. And so The Arcade Fire asks the question again, but with a crucial distinction: The pain of Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, the enigmatic husband-and-wife songwriting force behind the band, is not merely metaphorical, nor is it defeatist. They tread water in Byrne's ambivalence because they have known real, blinding pain, and they have overcome it in a way that is both tangible and accessible. Their search for salvation in the midst of real chaos is ours; their eventual catharsis is part of our continual enlightenment.

The years leading up to the recording of Funeral were marked with death. Chassagne's grandmother passed away in June of 2003, Butler's grandfather in March of 2004, and bandmate Richard Parry's aunt the following month. These songs demonstrate a collective subliminal recognition of the powerful but oddly distanced pain that follows the death of an aging loved one. Funeral evokes sickness and death, but also understanding and renewal; childlike mystification, but also the impending coldness of maturity. The recurring motif of a non-specific "neighborhood" suggests the supportive bonds of family and community, but most of its lyrical imagery is overpoweringly desolate.

"Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)" is a sumptuously theatrical opener-- the gentle hum of an organ, undulating strings, and repetition of a simple piano figure suggest the discreet unveiling of an epic. Butler, in a bold voice that wavers with the force of raw, unspoken emotion, introduces his neighborhood. The scene is tragic: As a young man's parents weep in the next room, he secretly escapes to meet his girlfriend in the town square, where they naively plan an "adult" future that, in the haze of adolescence, is barely comprehensible to them. Their only respite from their shared uncertainty and remoteness exists in the memories of friends and parents.

The following songs draw upon the tone and sentiment of "Tunnels" as an abstract mission statement. The conventionally rock-oriented "Neighborhood #2 (Laika)" is a second-hand account of one individual's struggle to overcome an introverted sense of suicidal desperation. The lyrics superficially suggest a theme of middle-class alienation, but avoid literal allusion to a suburban wasteland-- one defining characteristic of the album, in fact, is the all-encompassing scope of its conceptual neighborhoods. The urban clatter of Butler's adopted hometown of Montreal can be felt in the foreboding streetlights and shadows of "Une Annee Sans Lumiere", while Chassagne's evocative illustration of her homeland (on "Haiti", the country her parents fled in the 1960s) is both distantly exotic and starkly violent, perfectly evoking a nation in turmoil.

"Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)" is a shimmering, audacious anthem that combines a driving pop beat, ominous guitar assault, and sprightly glockenspiel decoration into a passionate, fist-pumping album manifesto. The fluidity of the song's construction is mesmerizing, and the cohesion of Butler's poignant assertion of exasperation ("I went out into the night/ I went out to pick a fight with anyone") and his emotional call to arms ("The power's out in the heart of man/ Take it from your heart/ Put it in your hand"), distinguishes the song as the album's towering centerpiece.

Even in its darkest moments, Funeral exudes an empowering positivity. Slow-burning ballad "Crown of Love" is an expression of lovesick guilt that perpetually crescendos until the track unexpectedly explodes into a dance section, still soaked in the melodrama of weeping strings; the song's psychological despair gives way to a purely physical catharsis. The anthemic momentum of "Rebellion (Lies)" counterbalances Butler's plaintive appeal for survival at death's door, and there is liberation in his admittance of life's inevitable transience. "In the Backseat" explores a common phenomenon-- a love of backseat window-gazing, inextricably linked to an intense fear of driving-- that ultimately suggests a conclusive optimism through ongoing self-examination. "I've been learning to drive my whole life," Chassagne sings, as the album's acoustic majesty finally recedes and relinquishes.

So long as we're unable or unwilling to fully recognize the healing aspect of embracing honest emotion in popular music, we will always approach the sincerity of an album like Funeral from a clinical distance. Still, that it's so easy to embrace this album's operatic proclamation of love and redemption speaks to the scope of The Arcade Fire's vision. It's taken perhaps too long for us to reach this point where an album is at last capable of completely and successfully restoring the tainted phrase "emotional" to its true origin. Dissecting how we got here now seems unimportant. It's simply comforting to know that we finally have arrived.

-David Moore, September 13th, 2004

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record.../funeral.shtml

CMJ Music Marathon Recap: 10 Bands Who Live Up To The Hype
10.20.2004

Who: Arcade Fire
What: Funeral
Why: If a single band was the buzz of the ball, it's this sprawling Montreal ensemble. Combining rock energy with violins, accordions, all manner of guitars and, in a live setting, anything they can beat with drumsticks, the band's sound is that of controlled chaos: The instruments meshing with Win Butler's shaky, almost David Byrne-like yelp into a beautiful, caterwauling sound that seems as if it could spin out of control at any moment. That air of imminent destruction is just one reason the Arcade Fire's music is so exciting.

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/149...ade_fire.jhtml

The Arcade Fire Funeral (Merge)

In the aftermath of three relatives dying, the six members of Montreal-based the Arcade Fire recorded their debut, Funeral, which thrashes and moans with pain and loss. The ornate, textured album is set in an anonymous, gloomy "Neighborhood," where parents weep, residents disco to the light of police sirens and "witches and liars" burn. It's a sorrowful, spooky place, made more sorrowful and spooky by the music: angry, forceful melodies join intricate, grand orchestrations, complete with accordions, xylophones and strings. Song after song finds frontman Win Butler wallowing and howling, mining for purpose in the wreckage of this town. On the waltzing "Crown of Love," Butler confesses: "I carved your name across my eyelids/You pray for rain I pray for blindness/If you still want me, please forgive me." Yikes: these newcomers aren't exactly a good time; their tunes swell with regret and rage -- but they do so beautifully. (BENJAMIN FRIEDLAND)

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/sto...ion=mainRegion


It was also featured as one of the top 50 albums of 2004 in Rolling Stone.
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/_/id/6768041

As well as featured on many critics top ten lists.
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/sto...region=triple3


You can listen to a stream of their album throuhg the link here -
http://www.rollingstone.com/artist/_...890/arcadefire

Please do check them out and give them a chance. It took me a while to really appreciate their album and now I listen to it at least once a day.

[sxesven]

Nuff said. I love them. They got some amazing reviews, even from Pitchfork, which was surprising enough. Great band, great album.

[boogieordie]

Yay! sven likes them!

I actually had a little message in my original post about how you were talking about good emo, and that this is good emo, but then I took it out. hehe.

I like music that's hard to categorize.. hehe

[sxesven]

Originally Posted by AyuRocks

Yay! sven likes them!

I actually had a little message in my original post about how you were talking about good emo, and that this is good emo, but then I took it out. hehe.

Haha Ah well, 'emo' scares people, so maybe it's good you got rid of it, haha!

Originally Posted by AyuRocks

I like music that's hard to categorize.. hehe

Same here! AF's music's incredibly diverse. All the way from indie to emo, to orchestral to what-not, awesome. Reminds of pretty much everything from U2 to At The Drive-In, and then some. Lovely.

[boogieordie]

I have to quote a post from my other forum about Arcade Fire -

Early Talking Heads, early Roxy Music, Joy Division, Godspeed You Black Emperor, a little Big Star, and a little early REM, if not some Sugarcubes-era Bjork - I think I might have the bases covered.

There was an article about the Montreal music scene in the NYT, two weekends ago (February 6), that piqued my curiosity. Good stuff there - it hearkens back to another era (or three). Sadly, the article is no longer available for free.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstra...=archive:search

[sxesven]

First off, I'm terribly sorry for bumping this old thread (and yes, I realize it's old), but as it never took off and since I felt like commenting on it pretty much a year after its release, I chose to kick this thread back up.

Anyway, first off, to anyone who missed this recommendation the first time round: here's your chance. Seek this album out, it's worth it. As for what I wanted to comment on: I must begin to say that this album still manages to amaze me every time I listen to. It's easily one of my favourite records of 2004 and I still listen to it very regularly. What often surprised me though when reading reviews and especially user comments on sites such as Amazon, was the fact that many people considered Crown Of Love and Wake Up to be the highlights of Funeral.

What? Now, don't get me wrong: I think both Crown Of Love and Wake Up are exceptionally great songs--however, whereas most of Funeral is highly original and very refreshing, these two songs are probably the most conventional of all. As such, I found it odd that people singled out these tracks and referred to them as the stand-outs. In fact, I consider all other eight tracks to be astonishingly great and think a little less highly of both Crown Of Love and Wake Up--they are great songs, they are, but like I said before, they don't seem to represent what (imo) sets The Arcade Fire apart from other bands.

Anyway, I'll leave it at this - just curious if anyone else who heard this album agrees or has different viewpoints (I'd love to hear any opinion). Thanks in advance!

[boogieordie]

I like every song on the album, but there's no way that Crown of Love and Wake Up are the highlights.

[sxesven]

Thank you, Ash.