2012.08.03 Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

Color: Black

Released: 2010, August 3

Label: Merge Records

I’ll start here with Arcade Fire because right before this release is when I started to actively care about this band. I never listened to them much before because I kinda wrote them off as a “flavor of the month” sort of band initially. I think I started becoming curious when their music was being used in promotional spots for Spike Jonze’s Where The Wild Things Are film adaptation. Shortly after that, the band started to tease songs from this record and I became greatly intrigued. I have to say I was also hooked in by the overarching concept and narrative of this record, having grown up in the ‘burbs myself. The album has a flow to it that feels as complete as something like… say Darkside Of The Moon. There are a few songs, namely “We Used To Wait,” that make me feel like I am experiencing something slightly spiritual and give me the kind of goosebumps I get when I hear a song like Springsteen’s “Born To Run” or Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb.” And though the band became possibly overhyped after the release of this record, it’s pretty impressive that a band on a record label like Merge was able to top the Billboard charts. Another thing that really made me finally admire Arcade Fire was their live show. I generally am very wary of bands in arenas or extremely large venues (for example, Spoon opened this show and they stage seemed to dwarf them) but Arcade Fire owned that joint and put on one of the most fun shows I’ve been too in recent years. I’m pretty impressed by the album’s packaging too. A photo with a heavy dot gain pattern graces the front cover (you know I love that kind of effect) and the album is covered with hand rendered typography, which is coupled nicely with a bit of foil/metallic stamping on the back cover. Maybe I should more attention to bands that generate the amount of buzz that Arcade Fire did upon their arrival?