The Arcade Fire Appreciation Thread

[myownsatellite]

I downloaded the Funeral album and I'm liking it quite a bit. Definitely not my favorite band, I don't know if I'll actually want to buy the album, it'll probably take me a few more listens to decide whether I want to spend money on it or not.

Either way, I'm broke for another couple of months anyway.

[nelison]

Either way, it will fall in the mediocre category. That's how all albums turn out after you come out with an impressive debut.

Aereogramme
Ash
Brand New
Cave In
Deftones
Doves
Dredg
Failure
Foo Fighters
Incubus
Jimmy Eat World
Metric
Muse
Nada Surf
Oceansize
Our Lady Peace
Pixies
Pretty Girls Make Graves
Radiohead
South
Stone Temple Pilots
Superdrag
theSTART
Weezer
A Whisper in the Noise
Yeah Yeah Yeahs (I know this one can be debated, but I like it more)

Those are all the artists I own albums by who have released followups either equal to or stronger than their debuts in my opinion. Some of these artists debut albums were decidedly weak enough to where I don't even own them (Radiohead, for example). Color me not worried about Arcade Fire though since that's not the case with them.

what Alan was referring to was bands that have amazing albums that are universally critically acclaimed and considered basically masterpieces, or a saviour to music and then have trouble matching or surpassing that first album. The best example I can come up with is The Strokes. They were apparently going to be the saviours of rock but followed up with an album that couldn't match Is This It?. I guess another example might be Alanis Morrisette.

[Hope]

Alanis' "Jagged Little Pill" isn't a debut. And many of her fans wouldn't call that album her best album either.

Strokes' Room On Fire is very underrated, thanks to the media.

What about Pavement? Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain is probably more liked than Slanted and Enchanted (and both have been equally raved about).

[Dread]

what Alan was referring to was bands that have amazing albums that are universally critically acclaimed and considered basically masterpieces, or a saviour to music and then have trouble matching or surpassing that first album. The best example I can come up with is The Strokes. They were apparently going to be the saviours of rock but followed up with an album that couldn't match Is This It?. I guess another example might be Alanis Morrisette.

That's because CRITICS put way too much stock and hype into new music. I honestly think that the "hype" around Yeah Yeah Yeahs' first album is what really has dragged the new one down critically. This review of the album pretty much sums it all up well, and even mentions the Strokes. I do agree that the same thing might happen critically with the new Arcade Fire album, but that will have no bearing on my opinion of the album. Alan made no reference to the critics, so it sounded like that he already knew he was going to be personally disappointed by it, and that other people will be as well. I countered that by showing that at least I probably won't be among those people. But you never know, I guess.

[menomena]

Well, I figure I might as well respond to what is being said about my post.

Funeral is a great album. It's fun to listen to. I listen to it everytime I enter poker tournaments to calm myself down. But it wasn't even my favorite album of the year, and I wouldn't consider it a classic. I found Sung Tongs, Fabulous Muscles, and Blueberry Boat to be more defining albums of the year, and much closer to the "classics" tab than Funeral.

But let's be honest. Everyone had a circlejerk around Funeral because it's the emo album the indie kids can say they like. Lyrically, it's not much different from any pre-2006 Vagrant release, but it was on Merge and had interesting instrumentation, and that's good enough to make Pitchfork, and therefore, the world love you.

Considering everyone and their brother considered this album to be a piece of perfection, they will not be able to come anywhere close to approaching what notoriety they once had, and it's not even solely Pitchfork's fault. Listen to Win Butler's voice towards the end of a concert. He doesn't know how to properly sing, and he's literally ruining his career each time he sings. He sounds like an absolute wreck in the morning, as evidenced by their cover of "Born on a Train" by the Magnetic Fields. On top of that, I think the guy from Final Fantasy (amazing music, by the way) isn't working on the new album. Losing a key member of your band never helps you out on a follow up album.

And about the list of bands previously dropped to prove me wrong. The only band on there that debuted with a classic album that succeeded afterwards was the Pixies. Weezer, no matter how good Pinkerton really is, completely fucking flopped after the Blue album. I mean, it caused them to stop making music for years after they released it. To be a classic, you need success in the mainstream, which it seriously lacked. And has anyone listened to Pablo Honey? It's flat out awful. And the rest, well, I don't like the rest of those bands.

Slanted & Enchanted is considered a better album because no one was making music like that at the time, and as soon as it was released, record labels searched out as many bands that sounded like them as possible. Hell, Merge Records was essentially founded that way, and Drag City Records became noteworthy because of it, not to mention Matador became a powerhouse indie label because of S&E. But "Cut Your Hair" is seriously their most enjoyable single, by far.

This is a half-assed response as I just got home from work (7-6 shifts fucking rule!) and am tired. I will try harder next time.

[Dread]

Well, at least now you've made it clear you're talking about critical and commercial success. Right? Maybe? Yes, I can already see Pitchfork not liking this album very well, probably because everyone there bloated that album up to equal the second coming of Christ or something. It might not do as well commercially because it won't have that fresh, new appeal and word-of-mouth praise Funeral had. That happens most of the time with sophmore releases. However, most critics have a stick up their ass, and the general public have too short of an attention span to even follow a band like this after one album. What matters is the fans. Are fans going to like this? Fans of Weezer love Pinkerton. A lot of them like Pinkerton more than the debut album. Did it flop? Yes. But that doesn't change the way many, many people feel about the album. And I wouldn't be surprised if most of the people who actually 1) aren't critics, 2) weren't riding the Arcade Fire bandwagon, and 3) follow the band but haven't blown their expectations of it out of the water will actually enjoy AF's follow-up. But who knows. It could be terrible. But that still doesn't prove the point that all albums following an impressive debut are considered mediocre.

But anyway... hey. Look. Actual news.

reetings..just letting you know that things are going well here in the studio! we have myabe 15 songs with little bits left to record and a few more we want to get on tape..we are going to try and record a couple of songs in me and regine's living room, because the drums sound so great in there

feeling excited and inspired, learning how to play these new instruments..well mostly regine is to be honest! its gonna be really interesting how we're going to fit all these new sounds in a tour bus

Montreal is overun with world cup fever..ever day a new flag is flying and people honking.

we got to go to the radiohead show and meet some of the guys in the band, which was a real dream...we showed ed and colin the people who do midevil sword fighting on the mountain, and ed payed a dollar to smash a pie in the face of this guy dressed up as a clown (i think it was this guys stag party)

this week we recorded a huge fucking pipe organ on 2 songs..what an incredible sound!

owen is coming here to record with us in early july and there is talk or recording a few songs with a full orchestra in budapest just before tim and natalie's wedding in late july! the next couple of weeks we will be pulling our hair out, I will say hi when we come up for air

luv

win

[naseoj]

just an update here:

the new album will be called "neon bible" and is set to be released in march of 2007.

[starseed_10]

AND they released a song via telephone that i don't want to listen to. good stuff.

[myownsatellite]

I bought a copy of <i>Funeral</i> for my brother because I liked it so much. I hope he likes it as much as I do!

[Random Name]

Its not making my list. This whole super hype over their concerts selling out and junk is lame.

[Dread]

Cough.

[starseed_10]

Its not making my list. This whole super hype over their concerts selling out and junk is lame.

They're actually that good though. The fact that hype still exists after more than two years should tell you something.

new Modest Mouse and Arcade Fire in the same quarter is incredible. Should be a good year.

[Dread]

Well, record sales of the new album will prove whether there are that many people who actually like them, or if a good number of the general public just latched onto them because they were the cool band to listen to in '04.

I like the new song though.

[starseed_10]

i'm expecting massive sales for an independant release at least.
and i'm slowing getting my hopes up based on all the positive feedback for this new song (don't want to listen, personally).
So really, it should be great. Probably not quite Funeral great, but i can't ask for that much.

[myownsatellite]

Cough.

Thank you

[Soozy]

The last day of January.

A church somewhere in London.

Arcade Fire + Soozy = awesomeness

[naseoj]

oh man, you're going to one of those shows! i'm SO JEALOUS....take lots of pics for me...

And if anyone wants to hear the new song Intervention, let me know and i can send you the mp3

[myownsatellite]

I gave my brother <i>Funeral</i> for Christmas - he put it on, and my MOM even said it was good music!!! *so happy*

[Dread]

CD quality rip of the new song:

http://download.yousendit.com/085B03050424E230

[naseoj]

thanks for that, it's much better quality than the old radio rip i had