Arcade Fire, The Neon Bible

Neon Bible is an excellent album by an excellent experimental band, Arcade Fire. After their spectacular debut, "Funeral", no one much thought about them. Now they've got us thinking again.

On "Neon Bible" Win Butlers soulful voice blends with New Wave-ish music and the Hungarian Orchestra to create great tunes. "Black Mirror", the opener and lead single, sounds peculiarly like Echo and the Bunnymen's "Killing Moon", but still has a very nice melody. "Keep the car Running" sounds like nothing else, more guitar based than most Arcade Fire songs. The title track, "Neon Bible", with it's almost whispered vocals and light guitar and drums, is a rather vicious lyric for such a pleasing little tune. "Intervention", the albums best track, starts with a grand, churchy organ melody and forms into a perfect Arcade Fire song, with Win Butler letting rip while singing about America's war-hungry and religious flaws while the Hungarian Orchestra lets the song go to new heights. "Black Wave" is not impressive, but still forces itself to be catchy. "Ocean of Noise" is almost exactly the same, and "The Well and the Lighthouse" is very annoying. These three tunes comprising a disappointing middle section. "Antichrist Television Blues" is a genius narrative about a religious dad and his daughter in a talent show. "Windowsill" is another big ballad, somewhat angsty and very beautiful. "No cars go" is very energetic, but with ridiculously dumb lyrics. Then the closer, "Mr body is a cage", enigmatically closes on a depressing note about suicide. Arcade Fire, you've done it again.

This record Arcade Fire, The Neon Bible is a perfect follow up, so many bands following hype from their first offering fail miserably to adapt and produce meaningful work. Arcade fire are just very good at telling a story, articulate, and damn bright. Intelligible depiction of the modern day world. A veritable orgy of melodies that are extremely thought provoking and inspiring. Uplifting and emotive. I don't mean to gush however I really think that this might be one of the all time greats.

Arcade Fire should feel pretty pleased with themselves. Not only are they one of the most universally acclaimed bands around today, but they are one of the rare few that can genuinely lay claim to doing something different. An unconventional blend of twanging guitars, dischorded harmonicas, creaking accordions, clanking pianos and quivering, sometimes even shrieking, vocals, they manage to sound both really old and completely new.

Perhaps unsurprisingly considering the title, Neon Bible thematically revolves around religious faith. But, being the Arcade Fire, this isn't exactly Songs of Praise, but more like Songs of Disillusionment. In true blue 21st century style Neon Bible laments the daily grind of everyday life, social constriction and in light of this, the lack of comfort offered by 'The Good Book'. There's a cynicism scattered throughout. This is never more clear than in tracks like Neon Bible (Not much chance for survival/If the Neon Bible is true'). Skip to Intervention, one of the many highlight tracks, and front-man Win Butler cries desperately: 'Working for the Church while your life falls apart/Sing in Hallelujah with fear in your heart'. In the folksy Antichrist Television Blues; we hear the prayers of 'God-fearing man' ('Lord would you send me a sign/Cause I've just gotta know if I'm wasting my time). If you hadn't guessed already, one can assume Arcade Fire will be leaving the love songs to less conscientious bands, as they've got other things on their mind. Neon Bible isn't only a statement about an alienating religion, but also a cry out against the culture that upholds it. Windowsill, another slow-building lament, says this loud and clear: ('Don't wanna fight in a holy war/Don't want the salesman knocking at my door/ Don't wanna live in America no more') But strangely, all this nihilism rarely makes for depressing listening. Quite the opposite in fact, listening to new material by the Arcade Fire is simply riveting. Adding yet another unconventional instrument to their repertoire of wistful violins and full- blown brass bands that have you weeping and stomping your boots in equal measure, we get the slow, powerful blast of a church organ thrown in the eclectic mix with magnificent results. Neon Bible is not only grander than its morbidly named predecessor, Funeral, but also more captivating. This is never more the case as the album reaches its climax with No Cars Go. Uplifting and gleeful, if there was ever a song to get you joining hands with complete strangers and skipping out into the street to, this is it, a theory the band have tested on more than one occasion.

Neon Bible is one of those rare albums, intimate, epic, poetic and absolutely unforgettable.

I feel this album was well worth my listen, Arcade Fire are one of the bands which we should look up to and find inspiration from as there needs to be more bands thinking on the same wave length. High points of this album include listening to Ocean of Noise and Black Mirror. Defintely worth recommending and deserves its hype.

I would hazard a guess that this is going to be Album of the Year on most critical lists come December, and I will probably be in full agreement. The Arcade Fire are simply the most exhilirating and important band in popular music right now and this album is an absolutely heady rush of hooks, strange noises and musings about the importance of hope in what is often the despair and futility of moden life.

I heard someone say that this record sounds like it was made by a bunch of whinging, overenthusiastic 15-year-olds, and I would say the description may be spot on but that is a large part of the charm of The Arcade Fire. They seem to approach their songwriting with masses of enthusiasm, which is fairly evident in the frenetic sounds they produce and the hyperactive vocals. The album is full of angst at the state of the modern world, full of worry about things which could go wrong from crime to terrorism to war to global meltdown, but the overarching message is hopeful, that yeah, there are many bad things in the world, many things to worry over and to fear but that change is possible and that you can find hope through human relationships.

This is a band firmly entrenched in the now, making music that sounds like nothing else out there with a great amount of joie de vivre and a real sense of the power of their own humanity.