Arcade Fire Rocking the Suburbs

I think it's rather fitting that my first album review will be for a release that I have been anticipating for quite some time now. I have been a big fan of Montreal's Arcade Fire since their monolithic debut album, Funeral. That album made huge headway om the international scene and shot the band to indie stardom. I believe that Funeral resonated with so many people because of its ability to capture the innocence of spaces like childhood bedrooms and playgrounds. the kind of areas that we can only fantasize about in our jaded adult minds and never return to again. Their second album, Neon Bible, was not received as well as their debut and I suspect this was because people were drawn away by its bleak subject matter rather than the quality of the content.

Yet here were are in 2010 and Arcade Fire are back to form with The Suburbs. In many way, The Suburbs touches upon many of the same topics of funeral, yet there is an intangible difference that is very difficult to isolate. Many of us see the suburbs as an place that exists in the imagination more than the real world. It is a place for people who wish to retire from the gloom of the city and live a safe, clean and "normal" middle-class life. Yet, as we all know, the suburbs are far from that. They are dirty and unsustainable communities that are cut off from the culture and vibrancy of the city. They are for folks who wish to obtain the illusion of country living, without actually living anywhere near the country side.

This fictionalized reality that we have created with aluminum and brink is what fuels Arcade Fire's epic album. In the opening track, aptly name "The Suburbs," Will Butler explains that, "I just can't understand/how I want a daughter while I'm still young/ I want to hold her hand/ show her some beauty/ before this damage is done." This delicate imagery demonstrates the naivety of the suburbs and it's search for security and comfort in a world that promises anything but that. Other songs like "Modern Man," "Empty Room," and "City with no Children" all touch upon similar ideas and depict the shortsighted fantasies that exist in the suburban world.

It would not surprise me if all member of the band spent some time of their lives in the suburbs. Surely to know your subject this well, you must have had to experience it and put in some time there. Yet, even though the album takes a critical stance to the suburbs, there is rarely a sense of condemnation. Instead, the band merely aims to hold a mirror to that world and allow their already apparent contradictions to shine through. I believe that this represents the maturity of the band and their ability to do great service to complex place and people. Instead of marginalizing and putting the suburbs in a box, the album reflects the complexities of this world.

One of the best albums of the year... so far.

EDJ