Album Reviews

In this post-modern, post-rock age of bratty musical cynicism, along comes this Montreal-based outfit projecting meter-pinning 70's style sincerity and passion.

Built around the husband and wife team of Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, the guitar-driven seven piece band is augmented by strings, synths and an assortment of other instruments to produce a grand, dramatic musical sweep of ideas reminiscent at times of David Bowie at his peak. You'll hear shards of “Rock and Roll Suicide,” (“Crown of Love”), The Clash's “Hitsville U.K.” (itself drawn from Motown), and David Byrne and The Talking Heads' musical and esthetic sensibilities among others, most of which never rise to the surface quite as clearly as do those specified.

Theatrical, anthemic and almost operatic, but never veering far from core rock values thanks to driving rhythms and VU-style chiming guitars, it's no wonder The Arcade Fire quickly became the darlings of hungry rock critics who hailed them as vanguards of the next great rock movement-an unenviable and unfair assignment I'm sure the band didn't welcome.

Kids coming to grips with adulthood expressed as freedoms to be savored and responsibilities to be feared, set against the backdrop of an ever-growing awareness of mortality forms the ground upon which the music is built. The album title derives from numerous family deaths occurring just before, during and just after the completion of the album.

You'll feel anguish, longing, exuberance, joy, optimism and pain as the husband and wife team shed their youthful skins and leave adolescence behind. “Time keeps creepin' through the neighborhood, killing old folks, wakin' up babies just like we knew it would,” Butler sings with unadorned sincerity on “Neighborhood #4 (7 Kettles).”

This is a meticulously crafted album, the kind “they” used to make, designed to be listened to in the foreground, the way people used to listen to music.

The arrangements are precise and sometimed dense, with smartly conceived and impressively executed string parts that captivates play after play.

Subtle textures and delicate effects have been carefully and lovingly layered to add atmospherics that will be sensed more than heard by casual listeners and MP3 downloaders, and probably in the hopes that those who do actually listen (as opposed to just hear) will appreciate the sonic whispers as well as the shouts.

The booklet packed in the sumptuously produced gatefold jacket says the tracks were recorded in a hotel room and the couple's apartment using 2” 24 track, _” 16 track, _” 8 track, Optimus CTR-108 (a cassette recorder!) and “G_d-forsaken Computer.” These folks have their sonic priorities screwed on straight!

Might this have sounded even better recorded in a proper studio? Perhaps, but the production is extremely listenable and you'll have no problem having your full interest sustained over the two sides of this thoughtful, evocative record. Highly recommended for late night listening and dancing too.