Arcade Fire is back with their third album, The Suburbs. For this album, the Canadian band really begin to spread their wings further by using their efforts to create their most punchy and scrappy rock songs, as well as still retaining their trademark orchestral elements that prominently featured on previous LPs Funeral and Neon Bible, to create their best album yet, as well as one of the best albums of 2010.
One noticeable and obvious topic for the creation of this LP is the suburban area. Arcade Fire use this theme to talk about the past and present state of it, as well as using their own experiences to create many songs that voice their opinions of it too. The negative and bad experiences have created some of the most hard hitting and powerful anthems on The Suburbs, most notably the song “Suburban War” which starts with notes that instantly grab your attention, and begin to play with your emotions. This is done through the use of front man Wynn Butler’s vocals and delivery layered on top of the already heartstring pulling music.
Another case is the ending track “The Suburbs (Continued)” which is a follow up on the opening title track, this time though this follow up is a low-tempo and quiet song that puts emphasis on Wynn Butler’s lyrics about wanting to waste his time in the suburbs again. It’s almost like a plea from the Arcade Fire front man to want to go back to times when it was much easier for him.
As well as these powerful songs, there are also the more upbeat, empowering songs too. The opening title track in particular has a piano riff that really puts a smile on your face because it’s so catchy, one of the many riffs to feature on this LP. Other songs that have been produced from the good nature and memories of the suburban area are “Ready to Start” “City with No Children” and of course “Rococo”.
The song “City with No Children” in particular brings a similarity to a Neil Young song, whereas the song “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)” has a likeable similarity to the song “Heart of Glass”.
What I also liked about this album is the amount of variety that is present. The vocal duties are often switched between Wynn Butler and his wife, as a duet, or even in some cases as a band. For example, the song “Suburban War” features a section where the whole band are singing at once to create some sort of battle cry or chant, which helps create such a powerful and beautiful piece of music. The subtle changes added to songs is the use of synthesisers within some songs to create a kind of nu-wave appeal, as well as the heavier rock tunes such as the climax to Rococo and the Queens of the Stone Age sounding pounding riff that features on Month of May, which helps create so much depth and dimensions to Arcade Fire as a whole.
One gripe that I have about this album is that it sounds very much like it’s trying to keep up tempo throughout, the production on this album has made it have this impression constantly, and in some cases, it results in the LP sounding flat. But despite that, this LP is very good and definitely a must have for everyone because of its catchiness, and its powerful moments too. I give Arcade Fire – The Suburbs a 9/10.
