![]() ![]() It served as a bridge from the vagaries of Win Butler’s lyrics into more specific cultural territory, one that most indie bands avoid, either out of fear or respect. The most political song on Funeral by default was “Haiti,” Régine Chassagne’s paean to her Caribbean homeland, which her parents fled during the brutalities of the Duvalier reign. Of course this would result in impersonality, a distance from the subject matter that can’t be played off with the same dreaminess that Funeral’s moments of respite made possible. To both their benefit and detriment, they consistently embody a commitment to the ideals (and purity) of the 21st century Big Problems rock band, one disillusioned with the potential of the counterpublic economies of ’80s post-punk and alternative rock but still adherent to that era’s ethics and skepticism toward mass mediation. Club, he explained his reasoning, saying “it was kind of in the moment, but it kind of fit with the song, too.” The Arcade Fire are too smart to fall into the traps of a sophomore slump - but their self-consciousness about commodification never quite turns inward, to examine the privileges of their musical preoccupations with nostalgia, melodrama, or even optimism. The turning outward comes with a degree of self-consciousness, maybe most noticeable in the band’s performance of “ Intervention” on SNL in 2007, at the end of which Win Butler decided to smash his guitar, Pete Townshend-style. Deusner noted in Pitchfork, catharsis replaced by “spring-loaded tension and measured release.” The recording style necessitated by the abandoned church used by the band as a studio makes melodies and rhythms bleed and echo abound, a choice decried by some as a failing of the recording but more likely a conscious aesthetic decision - a muddy album for muddy times. The result, musically, was a chunkier, dirge-ier Arcade Fire, with, as Stephen M. So Neon Bible took that narrative and engaged with it - not head-on, in the way that Vampire Weekend did with their self-consciously globetrotting Contra, but with a steadfast commitment to going broader: in sound, in themes, and in their public image. You know the drill: hyped first album, disappointing second album, subsequent slide into obscurity punctuated by weird alterna-rock tabloid headline. Funeral, the band’s debut, established Arcade Fire an audience, drew the eye of the indie press, and built them into what Time called “Canada’s Most Intriguing Rock Band” in 2005, but to many they could still be easily pigeonholed as a buzz band. Without a doubt, Neon Bible is the genesis of this narrative - or at least the band’s participation in it. ![]() How did the band that was meant to save rock ‘n’ roll fail, and what did we miss by pinning that on them? Rock music might be as good as ever, with acts in the underground continuing to use guitars in interesting, exciting ways, but they’re staunchly marginal, with none of the cultural explosiveness that surrounded the indie craze of the 2000s.Ĭonsidering this, it’s useful, then, to see how the Arcade Fire in particular went from one indie band among many to a band that galvanized what seemed like a nation-conquering movement at the time - and where the seeds of the subsequent failure to conquer the nation might have been sown. This is at least partly because of the hype and subsequent tepidity that accompanied 2013’s Reflektor, but also more generally because of the movements in music that have happened since, relegating indie from its former status as “the future of rock” to another in a long list of fragmented genres. No matter what one thought of 2013’s dance-punk comedown Reflektor, it’s hard to confidently say that the crown princes of indie are still in the dominant place they inhabited in the years following 2010’s Album Of The Year Grammy-winning The Suburbs. When an album’s anniversary comes up, it’s easy to look back and think, “How did this fit into the context of the band’s previous work?” But with the Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible, the view from 2017 is almost more intriguing.
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