Arcade Fire: The Suburbs

Arcade Fire
The Suburbs
Merge Records [2010]









Fire Note Says: What can you say - The Suburbs is absolutely one stellar listen!

Album Review:
The Suburbs is the third long player from Arcade Fire and it is the bands most complex, grandiose, and expansive work to date. For a band that can be counted on for their serious take on life, The Suburbs deliverers and its subject matter ages appropriately with the group, as the songs address getting older and watching youth fade away in different types of desperation. Like their previous two albums, Arcade Fire accomplish diving into theses issues with catchy and memorable anthem driven songs - 16 of them to be exact, that just crosses the hour mark. From the strolling and breezy opener of the title track to the Bowie like "Modern Man", Win Butler is behind the wheel with his most confident singing yet. Wife Régine Chassagne once again vocally supports the album here in perfect balance but also takes the lead on the record's most adventurous track "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)", that plays like a modern Blondie. What happens on The Suburbs in supreme fashion is the groups ability to bring you along for the ride. The tracks are stories and narratives about them, you and me, which every listener at some point will resonate with and become completely enthralled. This is also accomplished by sitting down and living with this record. Hitting shuffle on The Suburbs is a mistake that should not be made, as the record makes sense as it plays in order. It makes even more sense if you check out this album in its double vinyl version, as there are natural breaks when moving through the four sides. It is this kind of precision that makes Arcade Fire one of the great indie bands of the moment. When we look back on this stretch of modern music, Arcade Fire will be remembered as a group that defined it and The Suburbs will most certainly be part of that conversation!

Key Tracks: "City With No Children", "The Suburbs", "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)"

Bands With Similar Fire:
David Bowie
The National
Bright Eyes

Arcade Fire: Neon Bible [Fire Note Review 3/6/07]

Official Arcade Fire Website
Arcade Fire MySpace
Arcade Fire Facebook
Merge Records

-Reviewed by Christopher Anthony