[review 2004: the best of the year]

(apologies for the bad link; this should work now.)

Ah yes, the vaunted Arcade Fire. If you live, say, in eastern Canada, chances are you know the Arcade Fire, seeing as how they’re only the most hyped band of the past couple of months. Seriously, everywhere you go, it’s Arcade Fire this and Arcade Fire that. Two months after the album’s release and I’m actually pretty sick and tired of even hearing the name Arcade Fire�and I’m in Vancouver, far away from the band’s home base of Montreal. I can’t imagine the burnout that must be forthcoming in, say, the Toronto music scene.

So. Set the feature articles, the lovingly-penned concert testimonials (overheard at the Vancouver show: “HOLY SHIT ARCADE FIRE, SAVE MY LIFE WHY DON’T YOU?”) and the glowing reviews of Funeral aside�all twelve tons worth of them. You’ve already heard far too much about the Arcade Fire, even more so than Interpol�and that’s saying a lot. You don’t need a heap of people to tell you how good Funeral is. No doubt you’ve heard the album, and you’ve probably already made up your mind about it one way or another.

When a band receives this much coverage in so little time, my natural tendency is to hate it immediately (again, see Interpol). It takes a lot for a band to overcome this initial hurdle, or else the benefit of distance�say, several years’ worth. So it’s all the more impressive that the Arcade Fire have succeeded nonetheless. Funeral is what I had imagined the Flaming Lips would sound like. Instead of the grandiose mytharcs and the liberal use of echoes exhibited on the Lips’ Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, we get a truly passionate album that can shift gears effortlessly. All-out shoutfests like “Neighbourhood #3 (Power Out)” and “Rebellion (Lies)” stand as equals beside soft-focus numbers like “In The Backseat” and “Neighbourhood #4 (7 Kettles).” Instead of the overwrought sounds and maudlin sentiments of a “Do You Realize?” we get “Wake Up,” whose passion and intensity feels like the genuine product.

Funeral, I find, is a difficult album to replay over and over again. It seems to demand too much emotional investment; you have to be willing to swallow the album’s dramatics whole in order to get the most out of it, and sometimes that’s just too much effort. It’s not an easy pop album you can just throw in the player; it demands a connection, a commitment. Maybe that’s part of why so many people are in love with the Arcade Fire; in a decade where hipster irony has made it easier than ever to pretend to care, Funeral has shown in spectacular fashion that there are people who genuinely do care about the music they play and the stories they tell.