Album: Funeral
Artist: Arcade Fire
Born: Montréal, Québec
Released: September 2004
Genre: Indie Rock
Few albums have been as influential over the past decade as Arcade Fire's Funeral. The album's huge success marks the point when indie rock really announced itself, after several years of momentum. It was fitting really that the label (Merge Records) that released one of indie rock's seminal albums, In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, also came to release Funeral. Arcade Fire offered a unique mix of Neutral Milk's Hotel's gypsy folk sound and Bruce Springsteen's anthemic choruses, the band's sombre songs about death and teenage rebellion lightened by a joyful approach to playing and singing. It wasn't until late 2005 that Arcade Fire's success really started to build in the UK, by which time I was travelling round the world, but having the album on my iRiver mp3 player meant I got to listen to it several times during that year. I didn't get to see Arcade Fire live until early 2007, when they came to Brixton Academy as part of the Neon Bible tour, but it was worth the wait. Both the wife & I agree that it was one of the best gigs we've ever been to, almost like a religious experience in its intensity (this is a good clip to illustrate what I mean). The encore of Wake Up, one of rock's great songs, and Neighbourhood #3 (Power Out) was particularly memorable. We also saw them at Glastonbury later in 2007 and at the North Greenwich Arena in 2010, as part of The Suburbs tour, but neither was as memorable as that first gig. Many music groups are built on deep personal connections, whether that's the brothers in Oasis, The Kinks, The Beach Boys or Radiohead, or the lovers in The White Stripes and Sonic Youth, but Arcade Fire were unique in having both, and the relationship between Win Butler and Régine Chassagne is especially fundamental to the group's music. Both lost grandparents that were very dear to them within a short space of time, and this grief was the source of inspiration for Funeral.
On the first side of the record, four of the five songs are part of the Neighbourhood series, with opener Tunnels about teenagers finding a way to escape from the sorrow that envelops a house after a death in the family. As the band's first single release from the album, it set the template for their sound, loosely defined as a slowly intensifying rhythm section, nostalgic lyrics and an uplifting finale ("whoa-oh-oh-oh"). Laïka, with its high-intensity percussion and accordion playing, has an Eastern European gypsy folk sound and a title that references the dog that the Russians sent out into orbit. Like the dog, the "older brother" in the song is being abandoned by his family. This sense of loss is at the heart of the record, though Une Année Sans Lumière (translated literally as a year without light) is again hard to interpret, either about a stubborn old man who's dying or young lovers escaping the attention of the girl's father, but even this mournful song finishes on an upbeat note. Neighbourhood #3 (Power Out) is one of the album's highlights, and like the previous song it uses the metaphor of a power cut to symbolise the dying of a dream. On the final Neighbourhood song, #4 (7 Kettles), you can hear the kettle boiling as Butler tells us he doesn't want a lover, that he doesn't pine for heaven, all he wants is to recapture a spirit that's been lost. This song is one of the record's quieter moments (with no exciting coda), and some of the themes of mourning for family members, and a way of life that's gone, really start to crystallise. The quality of side 2 of the record is just as strong, with Crown of Love, Wake Up and Rebellion (Lies) all highlights, while Haiti is a beautiful song that gives an insight into the story of Régine's parents, who escaped from Haiti when the country was under the shadow of François Duvalier's dictatorship. If there's one moment that marks Arcade Fire ascent to superstar status, it's probably their performance of Wake Up with David Bowie in 2005. From that point onwards, their success has ballooned, almost beyond control now – while I quite liked Neon Bible (2007), and really enjoyed The Suburbs (2010), the band's most recent LP, Reflektor (2013), is a huge disappointment.
Few albums have been as influential over the past decade as Arcade Fire's Funeral. The album's huge success marks the point when indie rock really announced itself, after several years of momentum. It was fitting really that the label (Merge Records) that released one of indie rock's seminal albums, In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, also came to release Funeral. Arcade Fire offered a unique mix of Neutral Milk's Hotel's gypsy folk sound and Bruce Springsteen's anthemic choruses, the band's sombre songs about death and teenage rebellion lightened by a joyful approach to playing and singing. It wasn't until late 2005 that Arcade Fire's success really started to build in the UK, by which time I was travelling round the world, but having the album on my iRiver mp3 player meant I got to listen to it several times during that year. I didn't get to see Arcade Fire live until early 2007, when they came to Brixton Academy as part of the Neon Bible tour, but it was worth the wait. Both the wife & I agree that it was one of the best gigs we've ever been to, almost like a religious experience in its intensity (this is a good clip to illustrate what I mean). The encore of Wake Up, one of rock's great songs, and Neighbourhood #3 (Power Out) was particularly memorable. We also saw them at Glastonbury later in 2007 and at the North Greenwich Arena in 2010, as part of The Suburbs tour, but neither was as memorable as that first gig. Many music groups are built on deep personal connections, whether that's the brothers in Oasis, The Kinks, The Beach Boys or Radiohead, or the lovers in The White Stripes and Sonic Youth, but Arcade Fire were unique in having both, and the relationship between Win Butler and Régine Chassagne is especially fundamental to the group's music. Both lost grandparents that were very dear to them within a short space of time, and this grief was the source of inspiration for Funeral.
On the first side of the record, four of the five songs are part of the Neighbourhood series, with opener Tunnels about teenagers finding a way to escape from the sorrow that envelops a house after a death in the family. As the band's first single release from the album, it set the template for their sound, loosely defined as a slowly intensifying rhythm section, nostalgic lyrics and an uplifting finale ("whoa-oh-oh-oh"). Laïka, with its high-intensity percussion and accordion playing, has an Eastern European gypsy folk sound and a title that references the dog that the Russians sent out into orbit. Like the dog, the "older brother" in the song is being abandoned by his family. This sense of loss is at the heart of the record, though Une Année Sans Lumière (translated literally as a year without light) is again hard to interpret, either about a stubborn old man who's dying or young lovers escaping the attention of the girl's father, but even this mournful song finishes on an upbeat note. Neighbourhood #3 (Power Out) is one of the album's highlights, and like the previous song it uses the metaphor of a power cut to symbolise the dying of a dream. On the final Neighbourhood song, #4 (7 Kettles), you can hear the kettle boiling as Butler tells us he doesn't want a lover, that he doesn't pine for heaven, all he wants is to recapture a spirit that's been lost. This song is one of the record's quieter moments (with no exciting coda), and some of the themes of mourning for family members, and a way of life that's gone, really start to crystallise. The quality of side 2 of the record is just as strong, with Crown of Love, Wake Up and Rebellion (Lies) all highlights, while Haiti is a beautiful song that gives an insight into the story of Régine's parents, who escaped from Haiti when the country was under the shadow of François Duvalier's dictatorship. If there's one moment that marks Arcade Fire ascent to superstar status, it's probably their performance of Wake Up with David Bowie in 2005. From that point onwards, their success has ballooned, almost beyond control now – while I quite liked Neon Bible (2007), and really enjoyed The Suburbs (2010), the band's most recent LP, Reflektor (2013), is a huge disappointment.
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