2017 Arcade Fire LP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zC30BYR3CUk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1tAYmMjLdY

I laughed out loud when the Dancing Queen bit came in. It's the first song I've kind of enjoyed of theirs in years.

Another important detail:

https://www.residentadvisor.net/news.aspx?id=39154

sounds like the scissor sisters lol

Another important detail:

https://www.residentadvisor.net/news.aspx?id=39154

― yesca

It does have a similar feel to Touch from Random Access Memories when it gets going.

This song is better than anything they've done after 'Funeral'. They completely lost me with after that album, but this is good.

I'm really confused by ppl saying this is the best thing they've done in a decade bcz to my ears this sounds like a song they have already made like 6 times

also guys do you think this will be the 2nd to last track of the record?

I expected to hate this. I don't. But that's about the extent of it.

Have they made this song already?

I just think everything after Funeral was way too self-indulgent, aspiring to reach U2 levels of arena rock, which really, completely put me off. If this new one is a sign of things to come I might get on board again. It is an incredible earworm too tbh.

Neon Bible is my favorite album of theirs. I don't know if anything after that one was more or less pompous, but I just didn't care anymore.

Weird that you'd find this one to be them somehow pulling back on aspiration, though...there's a huge choir part.

I enjoy the ABBA-ness.

What I'm not sure about is the fact that it also reminds me of this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGMabBGydC0

It is weird! I think to me it sounds a lot like them grooving out and not take themselves way too seriously? (I mean, they did with Funeral, but that was their debut album, and I took that very serious as well). Not figured it out yet as per the new one. They'd lost me completely after Funeral, and while this is thoroughly different, it sounds good to me idk.

xp

It's alright for what it is. I don't like it nearly as much as "Black Mirror" or "Reflektor" (the track). I've never liked an LP of theirs from beginning to end, though.

Funeral was so good but it's strange to me that nearly everything since has been a straight up pastiche of something. didn't expect it would be ABBA this time but it at least has a nice lightness to it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_sKqFkReZk

Le Bateau Ivre, you should really give Reflektor a chance, if you haven't already. It sounds quite a lot like a bunch of stuff from that record. I love the Hancock-sample :)

My phone's been blowing up for 24 hours because I spent a decade in a band called Everything, Now!

http://everythingnowmusic.bandcamp.com

(also, that single is pretty vanilla)

https://scontent.fybz1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/18835646_10158920585745151_5843268488750753195_n.jpg

https://scontent.fybz1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/18835646_10158920585745151_5843268488750753195_n.jpg?oh=eb648f9ed1dfd54b9931850834b7a441&oe=59E07BB2

Freely translated back: 'hmm… a trifle.'

@Fred, it's not something high on my list but will give it 'nother go.

I love Funeral, Neon Bible half of it and then haven't felt like listening to them again.

The Suburbs was so boring that I almost gave up on them, but Reflektor has some quite good stuff. I mean, it's overlong, and Everything Now kinda trumps a lot of attempts at similar dancey stuff on it, but it's worth giving a shot.

I really, really, really like this new on :) So joyful. Looking forward to shouting along when they play Roskilde this summer.

Suburbs is their best album by far (though Funeral made the bigger impression on me at the time)

New single sounds just like their last album

Will also rep for Suburbs as (maybe) their best album.

Kinda last me with Reflektor. Will check new one out based on the single, which I liked.

lost not last*

New single sounds just like their last album

Funeral and Neon Bible only. Neon Bible is better.

Funeral >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> the rest of it is O.K. and wouldn't have got noticed without Funeral. I'm going super stretch this comparison but whatever: The Grammy for 'The Suburbs' is kind of like the indie rock equivalent of Scorcese getting an Oscar for 'The Departed'.

haha I can see that

anyway Neon Bible has good songs but they're lost in the terrible production - muddy, weak and cluttered

*sighs*

It's this fucking lot again.

I don't particularly like them, enjoy a few previous songs, but the new single is ridiculous yet not bad. It's catchy but there are some very silly aspects (the mentioned abba hook, the flute breakdown - borderline spinal tap territory, the everything now chanting part that sounds like simple minds' alive and kicking prechorus...).

Funeral and Suburbs are both great, the second is probably the better "album." Neon Bible has its moments but I don't play it much. Reflektor, I'm honestly not sure I've listened to the whole thing.

I wrote upthread the sample was Hancock, but it's of course this tune:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m56H4E5bZLk

Love it.

I first heard that song through ILX, and imagine Win Butler did the same. Though apparently it's on a pretty influential compilation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzwicesJQ7E

They've always incorporated New Order into their music but the beginning foundation of this track is about as obvious a nod as it gets.

the "first record" reference is clever but I can't help think the new Killers single trumps them for cheese appeal

decent song but subtlety was never a strong point with these guys huh

I like the Francis Bebey sample

Funeral is their best album because it doesn't sound like a DFA b-sides compilation heard through a thin wall, and neither was it recorded in a big echoey church

haha

rly loving the new track

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-w1GeH8KPU

Lmao nailed it

Just listened and am having trouble not hearing Creature Comfort as a bit of InBetween Days over Love Missile F1-11, but it's pretty damned flashy. I'm a little dazzled right now.

Just got a pop-up ad for a combination fidget spinner/USB drive combo promoting the new album. I assume it is part of their high-concept gag marketing push?

Incidentally, there seems to be broader industry stuff afoot. AF sign to Columbia, War On Drugs sign to Atlantic ... why do these bands need to jump indie ship now, when it would seem that the majors (as such) have less to offer than ever?

AF has less to offer than ever, too, so it might be a good fit? Idk.

This band is actively ruined by their frontsman’s ego. Funeral is the best for me because he had no clue how huge it would be. Every effort since then shows promise but it’s ruined by this certain douchiness in every delivery of its lyrics. Too judgmental of its own fanbase in such a shallow ways.

Funeral - a solid, decent rock album that sounded really fresh at the time and still gets play at Latin Heights on occasion
Neon Bible - just couldn't get my head around how horrible the production was on this one. Seemed to lay the foundation for dozens of bad indie acts with no control over the high-end and reverb knobs on their mixing desks
Suburbs - never made it all the way through, but it gets points for 'The Sprawl II: Mountains Beyond Mountains' which is maybe their first or joint-best song after 'Rebellion (Lies)'. I liked the weird signature on 'Modern Man'. The rest I don't remember.
Reflektor - Like a bad copy of a bad copy of Talking Heads with every ounce of groove drained from it. Terrible lyrics. Terrible terrible.
Everything Now - See Reflektor but even worse, plus added disco parodies and weak 'stick it to THE MAN' lyrics

Neon Bible - just couldn't get my head around how horrible the production was on this one
a sad thing since the songwriting was good

what's Latin Heights?

where i live

the other thing I couldn't get my head around was re-releasing a b-side from their first album on their second one.

Not least because "No Cars Go" sounds like a b-side.

No Cars Go was not a B side, it was on their first EP and by far the best thing on there

still

Can I be mad that this record sucks AND effectively erased my old band (yes....Everything, Now!) from the Internet. Just tryna sell Basecamp mp3s and leftover vinyl, Win, sheesh.

...rude.

a not quite small enough number of extremely unimaginative ilxors will still get this into the eoy 77, you just watch

still really can't get past his singing voice. i like bad voices sometimes but his isn't interesting.

I really want to get this into 77, both because I still like it a fair amount, and because it would piss people off, but I'm fairly certain it won't work.

I think this album is a good candidate for a fake top 10 placement

@ dog latin - there are plenty of bands that re-recorded strong songs from earlier/poorly recorded albums and EP's for later records. "Welcome to Paradise," pretty much everything on the pre-TOTBL Interpol EP's, Ariel Pink's 'studio' records...

no way in hell is this going 77

'No Cars Go' is the very best this band could ever do.

Yeah it's one of their marquee songs. Not sure but I'd bet it's been on their the setlist every night for over a decade, along with Rebellion (Lies) and Wake Up.

So weird. Even when the band was touring Funeral people would go crazy for No Cars Go, but I think it's a big nothing.

The Suburbs we always be the most underrated thing they ever did!

we = will

One I feel most compelled to return to. It’s great.

this band has gotten worse with every album since the (really good) debut. a stunning achievement!

Hahaha yes I can agree to that

I still believe that the promise indie showed in the early to mid 00’s pointed out to something fucking amazing, but it got lost.

and Funeral was one of the best examples

Oh well

I still believe that the promise indie showed in the early to mid 00’s pointed out to something fucking amazing, but it got lost.

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Saturday, October 28, 2017 7:53 AM (four days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This. I'm on a real 2005 nostalgia tip right now and it feels like (especially in the US) there was this point around 2004 where 'indie' music was having this incredible renaissance where rock and noise and folk music were converging and doing some really inspiring stuff. Flash forward to about 2009 and it had homogenised and dissipated into this terrible self-congratulatory woodcutting shit.

not all indie

what actually happened was that there was a tremendous explosion in the number of bands,meaning you had to search harder to hear the good stuff as the lowest common denominator shit floated to the top

saying that indie itself stagnated is dumb. and the arcade fire were always crap

(that's harsh obv but imo if you ever saw them as the flagbearers of indie then you were taking your eye very far off the ball)

no sure that's fine, of course there was good stuff if you looked, like in every genre at every time. But like, 2004-2005 you had (off the top of my head) Arcade Fire (Funeral), Animal Collective (Sung Tongs), Fiery Furnaces (Blueberry Boat), Wolf Parade (Apologies to the Queen Mary), Devendra Banhardt (Rejoicing In The Hands) all kind of bursting into the alt limelight at roughly the same time and making music that sounded relatively credible and original-sounding; compare a few years later and most of these bands had stagnated into self-parody and begat a commodified scene that encompassed stuff like Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver. The noise scene that felt very vital and challenging (Lightning Bolt, Black Dice, Wolf Eyes etc) hit a dead-end in many respects too. That whole Amerindie loft-scene thing burnt brightly for just a few years and it's easy to dismiss that in retrospect.

It'd be interesting to compare the numbers of bands coming through at those times - I think it's hard to get a handle this on given the shifts in what constituted indie music in that timeframe so I'm wary of making claims about the genre as a whole but there did seem to be a move towards blandness on the folk side of things (would definitely consider Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver key artists in that respect).

^ that all feels very real to me, but maybe because I was in college and Pitchfork was at its peak taste-making powers and it’s hard to see objectively around those two major forces

*xp to DL

Saw the band Monday night and they were great, as usual. The high-concept BS of the marketing campaign was largely abandoned (short some occasional fake ads or goofy pre-recorded used car salesmen schtick to buy merch), and the in-the-round setup worked pretty well. The band's theatricality remains really effective, and their passion (affected or not) is pretty infectious. Still don't like the new songs, but they definitely sound better when there are less of them to listen to. I do wish the band were smarter, which would make its attempts to act smart more effective (a la Peter Gabriel or someone equally presentation-aware), but they sure know how to put on a cathartic show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvqNWYggnVA

this is really not good lol

hoo boy

....

good god this is lame

"inspired by the current climate of the country, with a hopeful message to the youths"

poor youths. this is teh cringe.

embed still is sufficient lol

have never seen a band with a more mid life crisis vibe

should have retired after The Suburbs

this isnt that bad, it sounds like slower andrew wk

also reminds me of this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GhPUAVgHZc

this isnt that bad

I mean yeah on the surface it's a decent song musically speaking, but devvvine really nails it with the "midlife crisis rock" label. Win Butler has sounded desperately try hard since Reflektor, and Everything Now was straight cringe and utterly, lyrically tone deaf. I'll admit this is a marginal improvement though but I wish they'd focus inward again.

priors: i dont have any strong emotional attachment to their earlier work, so i have no expectations

i'm just not really sure who this is speaking from the perspective of or who it's speaking to

i know they said it's a message for the youths but it is not speaking their language and it is not clear what the message is

nope, nevermind, I get what you meant about midlife crisis rock, that's it otm