The Gown Student Newspaper at Queen's University Belfast

REVIEW: Arcade Fire – The suburbs

In contrast to their stark sophomore project Neon bible, Arcade Fire have started painting in bright colours again to bring us The suburbs; a mammoth album from humble origins, written from Win and William Butler’s perspective of growing up in Houston, Texas.

BY CHRIS JOHNSON

The opening title track is disconcertingly safe by the band’s normally unconventional standards, but its subtle melody quickly gets under your skin. Perhaps given their unequivocal ability, the record could be mistaken as ‘safe’, especially on the likes of ‘Month of May’, but this album is the sound of a band airing their pretentious nuances, leaving room for a more spacious and vitalising sound where melody is king. ‘Ready to start’ is a key example; built primarily around two notes and a driving bass line, it soon ascends into sonic territory. It’s the song’s economic approach that makes it all the more appealing, and is set to sew itself into the fabric of the band’s live repertoire.

On ‘City with no children’ and ‘Sprawl II (Mountains beyond mountains)’, the Quebec-based band have rediscovered the playful, wide-eyed charm once found in abundance on their world beating debut, Funeral.

The Butler brothers’ homage to their formative years in suburban Houston is perhaps symbolic, as it not only signals the band’s return to form; it’s their return to basics; it’s their return to simplicity; their return to innocence. The suburbs is a triumph.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 25th, 2010 at 3:57 pm and is filed under Arts + Ents. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.