Following the release of this album, I tried to write something about it a few times. The album really captivated me and I wanted to do it justice when writing about it. Originally I was sucked in by the fact that they’d traded in some of their grandiose for catchier riffs and it was a pretty cool album to listen to as a result. Plus I’m a sucker for any sort of concept and the lose one about suburban life is one I can relate to.
Is it white people problems? Maybe, but the album isn’t a bitch and whinge thing, it’s more of an exposition. For me, my city is one that is essentially entirely suburbs. The city is a huge sprawl, isolated from not only the rest of the world but also the rest of the country. A veritable sea of houses that clings to the coast for a glimpse of water. It’s a fairly boring city, one that has the hits of the 70’s and 80’s blasting out of car stereo’s and a number one radio station that sticks to its promises of no rap and no hard rock. It’s a city that a lot of people my age plan on leaving as soon as they graduate university. Its not a bad place to live by any means, but having seen the rest of the world, coming back to it seems like being stuck in purgatory.
The Suburbs works because it captures this idea of the sprawl through its extended tracklist and evoking the artists and music that echoes through its streets and living rooms, from classic rock, to folkier fare, to punk, to 80’s pop. Using these genres as templates, they’ve made some of the best songs of their career, while still being Arcade Fire. As such, between the songs themselves and the overarching concern of the disc, we have of on the best albums of the year.
Arcade Fire - Ready To Start - LINK REMOVED
No comments:
Post a Comment