Arcade Fire: The Suburbs

Release Date: August 2, 2010

Active Members: Win Butler, Regina Chassagne, Will Butler, Jeremy Gara, Tim Kingsbury, Sarah Neufeld, Richard Reed Parry


Produced by Arcade Fire and Markus Dravs

Arcade Fire's third album from 2010 The Suburbs, the second year of the Obama administration, compresses history and childhood into a flickering romanticism. Wasted time morphs into sacred time. A sober and triumphant album, The Suburbs features Arcade Fire's familiar blend of Apocalyptic angst and Utopian longing.

The album begins with the "The Suburbs", featuring a driving piano in a song that imagines the suburbs as a mythical place, but hardly a lost Eden. The opening stanza blends together a maze of conflicting memories:

In the suburbs
I learned to drive
And you told me we'd never survive
Grab your mother's key we're leavin'

Alienation, entrapment, domestic turmoil, disparate connections, and a dizzying sense of doom are ever present. And boredom.  As the narrator reflects on his childhood he contemplates the future for his children, or whether there will any future for them:

So you can understand
Why I Want A Daughter While I'm still young
I wanna hold her hand
And show her some beauty
Before all this damage is done

Trapped inside the miasma of the past and future the opening track sets the tone of the album, the feeling of coming awake after an intense dream. 

The high octane "Ready to Start" is about pursuing art and "businessmen drinking the blood" of artists. "Modern Man" looks at adulthood with weariness. 

"Rococo" is usually interpreted as a hipster take down, specifically the vapidity of 21st Century hipsterdom with its old timey beards and its conspicuous consumerism under the guise of creativity. Rococo art was an 18th Century style that celebrated aristocratic life in the French countryside, America's fascination with Kardashians and the British Royals sets a direct parallel. The art of being cool and feckless.

"Empty Room" sounds similar to "No Cars Go" from Neon Bible with Regina Chassagne taking the lead on the lyrics in a hymn to solitude. "City With No Children" paints another dystopian landscape as the title describes, possibly in reference to the Alfonso Cuaron film Children of Men from 2006. "Half Light I" imagines a future where life carries on underground after a world war told from a child's point of view, a bleak lullaby:

Our heads are just houses
Without enough windows
You say you hear human voices
But they're only echoes

The companion song "Half Light II (no celebration)" begins with a John Carpenter style synthesizer and reverts back to the present with references to the market crashes of 2008 and natural disasters wiping out cities. The Springsteen sentiments of Nebraska and the Cardigans style pop rhythms are vintage Arcade Fire. 

"Suburban War" addresses lost connections and broken relationships. The song laments music acting as a divisive force. Verses from the "The Suburbs" appear again in a much different context, detailing the fall of a once close friend.

"Month of May" is a rocker about the days before the uprising, but nothing actually happens, "the kids are still standing with their arms folded tight." 

"Wasted Hours" is another highlight, a tender, sensitive song about boredom and being young. Boredom was a primary occupation of punk, the idea of living in an age of dashed expectations - that certain politicians would use to their advantage. Rivers were catching fire and cities were turning into wastelands, the song imagines the fires making their way towards the suburbs. "Wasted Hours" transforms the stifled feelings of the past into a reflective melancholy.

"We Used To Wait" could justifiably be accused of overwrought nostalgia, maybe Arcade Fire at their sincere worst, yet it builds up to a soaring crescendo that moves into something transcendent. Lost connections in the modern world appear paradoxical when communication is ever faster - the transition from Gen X to Gen Y. 

"Sprawl 1 (Flatland)" is a somber song about a return to the old neighborhood where everything and nothing has changed. "Sprawl 2 (Mountains Beyond Mountains)" is the best song on the album, Regina's vocal brings some hope to the hopeless landscapes described on the record. The Suburbs ends with a reprise of the title track, the narrator admitting if he could go back he'd waste it all over again.

The Suburbs conjures a collage of feelings and images amidst all the emotional wreckage of the past and present. The angst of Arcade Fire is on full display - from their aching sentimentality and potent imagery. Not a rock opera in the vein of Tommy or Ziggy Stardust, but a central concept is there: the emotional toll of time moving in all directions at once. Challenging to get through in one sitting, yet The Suburbs yields much in meaning and texture through multiple listens.

The Albums of 1967: The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Are You Experienced?

Release Date: May 12, 1967
The Jimi Hendrix Experience Were: Jimi Hendrix, Noel Redding, Mitch Mitchell
Produced by Chas Chandler

Side One

Purple Haze
Manic Depression
Hey Joe
Love or Confusion
May This Be Love
I Don't Live Today

Side 2

The Wind Cries Mary
Fire 
Third Stone From the Sun
Foxy Lady
Are You Experienced?

Two different versions of Are You Experienced were released, one for the European market and one for the North American. I listened to the North American release.

On vinyl, the Jimi Hendrix Experience sounds more raucous and psychedelic than they do on FM radio. In stereo the record sounds more . . . revolutionary. Hendrix took the London scene of the mid-60s and brought a new sonic dimension that was driven by soul. Using the blues as a foundation point, Are You Experienced delves into many genres - folk, jazz, and rock. The record is a genre onto itself.

"Purple Haze" opened the American version, a song for the Vietnam War that was raging at the time. In the film Apocalypse Now as Willard's crew are traveling down the Mekong River they get deluged with purple smoke at one point and the surfer soldier Lance revels in the psychedelic journey of the war, "purple haze in my brain/lately things don't seem the same." Like Revolver and Highway 61 Revisited, Are You Experienced takes you on a metaphysical journey.

"Manic Depression" used distorted guitar, while Hendrix's bluesy vocal channeled a state of mind that broke new ground for a rock record in terms of content. "Hey Joe" took a classic folk/blues trope of the avenging lover into a three minute epic of heavy guitar, upstaging Led Zeppelin by a few years. "Love or Confusion" is another head trip with a more melodic guitar, a Beatles song from an alternate universe. "May This Be Love" could be a Motown song with its catchy melodies, prodded along by Mitch Mitchel's drumming.The rambling "I Don't Live Today" ends side one on what sounds like an impromptu jam session.

"The Wind Cries Mary" became one of Jimi's most memorable hits, a melodic and haunting love song with some seductive guitar playing. "Fire" became another hit, a commercial jingle in its brilliant simplicity. "3rd Stone From the Sun" is an extended psychedelic jam with some Sci-Fi overtones. The unforgettable riffs of "Foxy Lady" speaks to pure desire. The title track "Are You Experienced?" calls on the listener to expand their mind with its looping guitars, a call from the cosmic mountain top.

Are You Experienced introduced Hendrix to the world and we are the better for it. The year 1967 featured an abundance of riches that would be spearheaded by the June release of Sgt. Pepper by the Beatles to which Hendrix would acknowledge in his live shows. As history has proven: Hendrix could not only emulate his contemporaries, but also expand their music. No one could imitate Hendrix. 

Albums of the Imagination: Beatles 70/71

I know what you're thinking, another blog post about an imaginary Beatles album. Hey, we live in troubled times, so why not write about the Fab Four? 

The Beatles recording career unofficially ended over the summer of 1969 as the four of them completed work on Abbey Road. As the latter stage Beatles albums indicate they were all becoming separate individuals with different styles and artistic interests. Their output in 1970 and 1971 highlighted their diverging paths in dramatic ways. They had a lot to say. What if the era could be condensed into a Beatles album?

John's Plastic Ono Band burned all bridges with the past with its spare minimal tracks of stunning anger, sadness, guilt, and faint hope. The follow up Imagine in 1971 was more optimistic in outlook, featuring some of the most beautiful songs of the 20th century.

Paul's eponymous solo debut McCartney featured him on all the instruments. Like John's Plastic Ono Band Paul took a minimal approach, sounding homemade and joyously nonsensical. McCartney's 1971 follow up Ram was more muscular and ambitious in scope, setting the foundations of 70s arena rock.

Yet George had the most to say with All Things Must Pass, a triple record magnum opus. "My Sweet Lord" and "What is Life" would become massive hits.

Ringo's underrated two releases of 1970 Sentimental Journey and Beaucoups of Blues are full of stellar arrangements, ideal comedown records after navigating the heady material of his old band mates. Sentimental Journey could be titled "Ringo Goes Sinatra", while Beaucoups of Blues was compared to Bob Dylan's Nashville Skyline with its country influences (ironically, future Dylan would spend almost a full decade doing Sinatra).

My idea was not to put together a compilation of the familiar hits, but to highlight the Beatles speaking to each other, sometimes past each other. The four of them stayed with and developed ideas as solo artists that preoccupied them as Beatles. The songs were sequenced with that in mind.

Side One

Valentine Day (Paul)
Wah Wah (George)
I Don't Wanna Be a Soldier Mama (John)
Run of the Mill (George)
Well Well Well (John)
Long Haired Lady (Paul)
Without Her (Ringo)

Side Two

What is Life? (George)
Imagine (John)
Too Many People (Paul)
Awaiting on You All (George)
Love (John)
The Backseat of My Car (Paul)
Stardust (Ringo)

So, what if the Beatles had put aside their differences and decided to pool their resources for at least one more album? Titled simply 70/71, the record was an attempt to address the past, present, and future of the band. 

Opening with "Valentine Day" an instrumental from McCartney that begins the record with a low key, but suggestive fragment, a mock overture recalling the subterranean Quarrymen days. "Wah Wah" was written by Harrison on the day he walked out of the Let it Be sessions out of frustration. George needles John and Paul with lyrics like "You made me such a big star/Being there at the right time/Cheaper than a dime." The high spirited production drowns out the cynical vibe of the lyrics.

Lennon's "I Don't Wanna Be a Soldier Mama"  is a tripped out jam that speaks to his anger at the roles society assigns to people. A parallel to "Working Class Hero"" and the agitprop of his 1972 record Sometime in New York City, the track taps into Lennon's growing activism. George's "Run of the Mill" is one of saddest tracks on All Things Must Pass dealing with the fallout of the Beatles break up, produced with unforgettable horns and piano. John's "Well Well Well" from Plastic Ono Band was another primal scream into the abyss, a screed on the counterculture and establishment's inability to effect change. A fade into Paul's "Long Haired Lady" makes for a nice segue way, with Paul crafting a basic pop song into a theatrical extravaganza. Ringo's "Without Her" is a melancholy country tune that brings side one to a subdued conclusion. 

Harrison's "What is Life" opens side two on a high note. The song was a top ten hit in America and the United Kingdom where it was the top selling single of 1971. "Imagine" is Lennon's most important statement as an artist, extending the idea of the Beatles into a post-Beatles world. Paul's borderline menacing song "Too Many People" from Ram is the type of song Lennon would aim at other people, here Paul appears to question Lennon's self righteousness. "Awaiting on You All" speaks directly to the listener, spiritual, yet grounded in reality. The mantra of the song, "If you open up your heart, you will know what I mean" is pan-spiritual in sentiment.

"Love" is connected to many other Lennon songs, "The Word" and "All You Need Is Love" come to mind. On Plastic Ono Band the song provides a respite from the emotional turmoil on the record and speaks to John's maturity as a songwriter. Paul's "The Backseat of My Car" is an elevated rocker reminiscent of Abbey Road that captures the romance and exhilaration of the road. Ringo's jaunty version of "Stardust" ends the album on a lightly comic note, a call back to "Goodnight" on the White Album, an appropriate Hollywood ending.

Arcade Fire: Neon Bible (2007)

Release Date: March 5, 2007
Active Members: Win Butler, Regina Chassagne, Will Butler, Jeremy Gara, Tim Kingsbury, Sarah Neufeld, Richard Reed Parry
Produced by Arcade Fire

Arcade Fire's second album Neon Bible looks at the world after a cataclysm, heavy on post 9/11 overtones, or at least the long term consequences of a world destined for another series of endless wars. Neon Bible attempts to find meaning in a broken world of failed belief systems. As the the opening track "Black Mirror" predicts:

I know a time is coming
All words will lose their meaning

By far the Montreal troupe's bleakest album, Neon Bible presents a world shaped by a decade that witnessed the potent influence of fundamentalist religion reveals itself again and again.

The futuristic "Keep the Car Running" imagines another Orwellian scenario with a protagonist knowing it's a matter of time before the authorities knock on his door, "Men are coming to take me away/I don't know why, but I know I can't stay." 

"Neon Bible" takes aim at eschatology obsession of modern religion, specifically the Book of Revelation."not much chance for survival if the neon bible is right." If people think our world is doomed and a better one awaits, no wonder the earth is treated with such contempt. In a similar vein, "Intervention" imagines fighting for a church in some past or present war for no purpose whatsoever. A sort of anti-hymn with heavy organs and despairing lyrics. 

Regina and Win share verses on "Black Wave/Bad Vibrations" on another song of escape. "Ocean of Noise" an ambient lamenting narrative, positing a relationship on the precipice. "The Well and the Lighthouse" tells a fairy tale of resurrection within another failing civilization.

"Antichrist Television Blues" is a brutal examination of the Christian fundamentalist mindset, a disturbing song full of pathos about a man trapped between his belief system, economic constraints, and his daughter who can sing "like a bird in a cage." By the end he wonders if he's the actual Antichrist in a grim epiphany. 

"Windowsill" channels T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland as the exhausted protagonist speculates on whether meet his fate in a flood or be incinerated in a World War III, all he knows is "he don't wanna live in America no more." 

"No Cars Go," the anthem of Neon Bible, imagines a utopia free of intrusion from the instruments of pollution and war - reminiscent of The Talking Heads song "Road to Nowhere." "My Body is Cage" is a meditation on repression from within and without.

Musically Neon Bible has the exuberant production of Funeral, but much darker in theme and tone. A heavy listen, the album doesn't give you a chance to breathe, music for the end times. 

The Albums of 2004: Arcade Fire: Funeral

Release Date: September 14, 2004
Active Members: Win Butler, Regine Chassagne, Richard Reed Perry, Tim Kingsbury, Howard Bilerman, William Butler

Track listing: Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels); Neighborhood #2 (Laika); Un annee sums lumiere; Neighborhood #3 (Power Out); Neighborhood #4 (7 Kettles); Crown of Love; Wake Up; Haiti; Rebellion (Lies); In the Backseat

On their ironically titled debut album Funeral (attributed to the inordinate amount of losses members of the band experienced during the time of recording), Arcade Fire fired an opening salvo into the heady music scene of the 21st Century, one rife with fragmentation, segmentation, and the much written about decline of "the album."

Funeral set the tone for the albums to follow: emotive, cinematic, flush with surreal sublime imagery, culturally dynamic, and bold statements. Strands of the past intermingle: 1960s pop, avant garde influences from Velvet Underground to Brian Eno, punk sensibilities, and throw in all of Phil Spector's ambition. 

The "Neighborhood" sequence of four songs possibly take place at different points in history, or at alternating places at similar points in the past. "Neighborhood 1 (Tunnels)" may take place in the 1960s with the lyrical clue:

We let our hair grow long and forget all we used to know
Then our skin gets thicker from living out in the snow

Musically "Tunnels" brings the bombast of Bruce Springsteen's 1970s albums. Told from the point of a young man who who will be leaving the neighborhood with his girlfriend (a Springsteen trope), as he leaves friends and family behind. The story ends years later with him wondering what happened to everyone. 

"Neighborhood #2 (Laika)" begins with infectious pop with accordions, bells, and a child like punk Greek chorus:

Alexander, our older brother
Set out for a great adventure

A popular interpretation is that Alexander was a rebel living behind the Iron Curtain who tries to escape to the West. Win Butler has stated "Laika" is a reference to the dog the Soviets sent to space. Others see parallels to A Clockwork Orange or Into The Wild.  Like the narrator in "Tunnels" Alex escapes the neighborhood, but ends up right back where he began. By the last verse the rush of pop in the first verse settles into an acidic key as Alex fights with his father, ending on a note of sarcastic disillusionment as police lights turn the street into a disco, "Now the neighbors can dance." 

"Une Annee Sans Lumiere" is the interlude in the Neighborhood sequence, a suite that begins as a French pop song and ends with an onslaught of guitars.

"Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)" has a heavier pop intro with an industrial sound. Here the imagery gets more dystopic with lyrics of kids swinging on the power lines and families freezing to death with no hopes or plans. Possibly inspired by the power outages across Canada in 1998.

"Neighborhood #4 (7 Kettles)" may take place in the near future with our lonely narrator once again contemplating what's to come. Butler's vocal here is weary, almost defeated, pondering spiritual malaise and whether it's worth bringing children into a broken world "there's some spirit I used to know, that's been drowned out by the radio."

The second half of Funeral opens with "Crown of Love," a beautifully arranged folk ballad of loss and love. "Wake Up" would become an anthem for Arcade Fire, David Bowie himself would join them onstage at the Grammy's to perform it. "Wake Up" has the theatrics of Queen, The Who, and Bowie's 1977 triumph "Heroes." 

"Haiti" is about Chasagnne's native country and growing up in the shadow of authoritarianism. The soft Caribbean rhythms with Chasagnne's tender vocal sets a lighter tone for the rest of the album.

"Rebellion (Lies)" examines children, parents and the dynamics of rebellion. What leads to children to rebel? Is it the lies of adults? The song is obsessed with youth as many of their albums are, specifically the pain of being young. "Rebellion" also connects to the "Neighborhood" sequence from a more detached perspective.

"In the Backseat" is a tender meditation on loss and learning how to live, ending the record on a subdued and cautiously optimistic note.

Funeral launched Arcade Fire into the stratosphere, evidenced by the high anticipation for their 2007 follow up Neon Bible. Embraced by both hipsterdom and the rock establishment, Arcade Fire would plunge on ahead into maelstrom of the troubled years ahead, reeling between high fueled theatrics, jaded critics, treacherous political fault lines, and epic campaigns for relevance. 

The Albums of 2018: Courtney Barnett: Tell Me How You Really Feel

Release Date: May 18, 2018
Produced by Courtney Barnett, Burke Reid, and Dan Luscombe
Special Guests: Kim Deal and Kelly Deal

Side One: Hopefulessness; City Looks Pretty; Charity; Need A Little Time; Nameless, Faceless

Side Two: I'm Not Your Mother, I'm Not Your Bitch; Crippling Self Doubt and a General Lack of Confidence; Help Your Self; Walkin' on Eggshells; Sunday Roast

The songs on Courtney Barnett's follow up to her 2015 debut Sometimes I Sit and Think and Sometimes I Just Sit, lean towards introspection, self analysis, and weariness.

On the opener "Hopefulessness" Barnett impels listeners to take their broken hearts and turn them into art. The song's steady build up ends with a tea kettle going off and into "City Looks Pretty," a self-deprecating rocker on struggling to live to high expectations we place on ourselves, "Sometimes I get sad/It's Not all that bad/One day, maybe never/I'll Come Around." 

"Charity" may be addressed to a more successful contemporary with a sarcastic chorus "You must be having so much fun."  She feels both envy and sympathy for song's subject, "Meditation just makes you more upset." "Need A Little Time Out" calls for everyone to slow down, take stock, and gather strength. 

Side One ends with the "Nameless, Faceless," a song addressing trolling and fragile masculinity:

Don't You Have Anything Better To Do
I wish that someone could hug you
Must be lonely
Being angry
Feeling over-looked
You sit home alone in the darkness
With all the pent up rage you harness
I'm real sorry
Bout whatever happened to you

Barnett muses on not being able to walk in the park at night and holding the keys between her fingers. Lack of empathy and narcissism are what drives the trolls.

The second side begins with the declarative "I'm Not Your Mother, I'm Not Your Bitch," a punk screed that sets a less compromising tone. "Crippling Self Doubt" closes with an anthemic chorus, "I don't know, I don't know anything" that brings catharsis. "Help Your Self"  features another catchy hook, once again pleading with the subject to slow things down. 

Penultimate track "Walkin on Eggshells" speaks to the exhaustion of fighting and not letting things go. On "Sunday Roast" Courtney confesses, "I spend a lot of my time/Doing a whole lot of nothing," a sort of taboo these days. The song ends with a full on McCartneyesque singalong.

Fueled by guitar driven power pop and lyrics with punch, Tell Me How You Really Feel showcases one of the decade's great singer-songwriters. 

The Albums of 1978: Johnny Thunders: So Alone

Release Date: October 6, 1978
Produced by Johnny Thunders and Steve Lilywhite
Special Guests: Many from the punk and hard rock scene took part in the sessions for So Alone including Chrissie Hynde (The Pretenders), Phil Lynott (Thin Lizzy), Steve Marriot (Small Faces), Peter Perrett (Only Ones), Steve Jones (Sex Pistols), Paul Cook (Sex Pistols)

Side One: Pipeline; You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory; Great Big Kiss; Ask Me No Questions; Leave Me Alone

Side Two: Daddy Rollin' Stone; London Boys; (She's So) Untouchable; Subway Train; Downtown

Bonus Tracks added to 1992 Release: Dead or Alive; Hurtin': So Alone; The Wizard

Johnny Thunders led a chaotic life. A key figure during the early days of punk (or pre-punk), he was a founding member of the New York Dolls and The Heartbreakers. So Alone marked Johnny's solo debut, an against all odds triumph. 

A near masterpiece, So Alone runs the gamut of emotions from the euphoria of pure freedom to the deepest depths of despair. The LP also works as a history of rock and roll, a work offering depth and passion.

A cover of "Pipeline" from The Chantays sets the tone, a guitar driven thrash through an "oldie" still pulsing with life. 

Then the brilliant "You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory," used to great effect in Martin Scorsese's Bringing Out the Dead. An existential rocker about loneliness, addiction, frustration, bordering on spiritual, the epic chorus supplies the defiant hope (essential for dark times.)

Another 50's homage, "Great Big Kiss", is all camp with heavy guitars and suggestive theatrics. "Ask Me No Questions" adds a ominous tension, a desperate yearning for connection with Johnny's pleading vocal driving the song. "Leave Me Alone" is all punk, rude and confrontational.

The second side opens with "Daddy Rollin' Stone", a bluesy rocker with hints of doo-wop. "London Boys" attacks the punks who scoffed at the "pre-punk" The New York Dolls. A Sex Pistols pastiche, Thunders does his best Johnny Rotten imitation. "(She's So) Untouchable" brings soul to an unrequited love ballad, the album version lightens the mood with backing guitars and saxophones, acoustic versions on bootlegs are more desperate. 

"Subway Train" continues in a similar vein with some blistering Chuck Berry riffs, featuring one of the best lyrics, "I wrote you an epic letter, but it never got sent." "Downtown" outdoes the Rolling Stones, ending the album with some more addled blues.

The exuberance of 1950s jukebox rock gets reconfigured into the downbeat and existential.  Moments of levity appear, yet most of these tracks deal with frustration and loss. So Alone, one of the ultimate comedown records ever recorded, containing all the contradictions of the late 1970s.