2017 Arcade Fire LP

this is like their attempt at 90s U2 irony isn't it, but it's way more Pop than Achtung Baby

You'll be able to buy the new one in Sainsburys.

they put out a fake story about filing legal claims on the Millennial Whoop, this is all so corny and unbecoming of a big famous successful band

They are being so ironic they have found a way for me not to want to hear a new album by a band I like.

this is like their attempt at 90s U2 irony isn't it, but it's way more Pop than Achtung Baby

I recall people saying that about their last album as well. But it could be that this is the Pop to that album's Achtung Baby, albeit a very weak Achtung Baby.

this is from january but lol

http://www.billlboard.co/articles/news/7865084/arcade-fire-suing-artists-millennial-whoop/

Legal representation for Arcade Fire has confirmed that the “Everything Now” hitmakers have filed a series of intellectual property and copyright lawsuits this week. In what could be a precedent-setting decision, the band has left it up to a judge to determine whether or not they invented the so-called Millennial Whoop.

“After careful and sometimes agonizing consideration,” says Jared Fleming, Arcade Fire’s longtime lawyer, “the band contends their signature ‘Wa-oh-wa-oh’ sequence has been plagiarized by several top acts, and therefore seeks fair and just compensation.” Arcade Fire claim that artists from Katy Perry to Fall Out Boy owe their success in part to their wrongful use of the euphoric snippet. Proof, they say, comes in the form of their 2004 hit “Wake Up,” which showcases the rousing sequence, which the band created in the summer of 2002 in a church in Montreal that served as their rehearsal studio. A video of the precise creative process has been submitted as evidence along with their legal actions.

i'm sorry, it is fake news. a friend posted it and i was fooled by the convincing fake billboard.co website

For fake news to work tho they need to be credible which this totally is.

"A video of the precise creative process has been submitted as evidence along with their legal actions." is pretty funny, i can't believe i read that and still suspended disbelief!

just imagining the creative process that leads to whoa-ing

Chemistry is probably the worst song they've ever done

Dorian Lynskey goes into detail about the U2/Pop-connection and hits a dozen nails on the head: Arcade Fire Can't Dance And That's A Problem

haha, that's a great review, v otm

These guys want to be The Pop Group or 'Idioteque'-era Radiohead or the Rapture, but they remind me more of how, in the mid-90s, Eurodance acts like Twenty-Four Seven and 2Unlimited would have a go at social commentary

so many delicious lines in that village voice piece

Stereogum responds, more or less

http://www.stereogum.com/1951376/premature-evaluation-arcade-fire-everything-now/franchises/premature-evaluation/

Arcade Fire have always made dance music.

Out now. As is a 5.6 pan from Pitchfork. Gave it a couple of listens, though, and to me it's easily their best since Neon Bible. Basically the same as Reflektor, except simpler - it's obviously constructed as a single lp, and I imagine it's a much better listen that way - and I never liked The Suburbs.

"For a band who discovered themselves in sincerity, they are thoroughly lost when they bet it all on cynicism."

This sums it all up nicely in one sentence. They've become insufferable.

The ending of the album is as corny as they've ever been, though. But yeah, there are some stretches that are pretty bewildering.

Like, the stretch: Peter Pan -> Chemistry -> Infinite Content -> Infinite Content. That's bad. Like, objectively a bad stretch of music. And I would wager it would kinda work on an LP, where it's an experimental second half of a side after three hits in a row, and then a small introduction to the second side before another hit, but on a cd, that's what the skip button is for.

Signs of Life and Good God Damn are pretty dire too, the title track is pretty easily the best thing on here. Infinite Content might be a bit better if the lyrics weren't as stupid. Their lyrics have generally not been very good (Funeral's are fine though) but this is a new low.

Despite all the bloat on The Suburbs and Reflektor I'd easily take them over this.

can't believe this is the same band that once wrote a song from the perspective of jessica simpson's dad

Major labels, man...

I like Signs of Life, but Good God Damn and Put Your Money on Me is a pretty bad stretch as well. Although I like the horns in PYMOM

that Pitchfork review is the closest thing to a 70s Rolling Stone takedown I've seen in years. just so focused on saying "no" directly to the artist

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/harvest-19720330

It's also a big kick in the nuts to that stupid promo campaign, which I think the WaPo review was right to point out as a big distraction from the final product.

I haven't followed along with the promo campaign, but everything I've read about it makes it seem really inept and annoying and kinda without any sense of what the album is. I mean, they are apparently streaming the album as 'infinite content' in a way where the end links with the beginning, but they fail to see that the two songs Infinite Content are broken up, as if it's an lp. There is really a fight between old and new, sincerity and cynicism, and they decided to sell it solely as cynical. That's stupid.

But even if I kinda think sincerity wins on the album, their cynicism has really become off putting. There was a moment during their show at Roskilde on july 1st where Win jumped down towards the crowd during Here Comes the Nighttime, and stood at the gate to the stage and sang 'they won't let you in' and he seemed so sneering, so condescending, so full of himself that he was on this side of the gate, and we were on the other side. It took me out of the whole experience, and I never really got back into it for the rest of the show.

wtf is "Banksy disco"?

is that from the pfork review? pretty good descriptor imo.

but what does "Banksy" mean in that context? trendy but superficial and lacking in real substance? if so how would that be any different from referring to a "Banksy TV show" or a "Banksy sandwich shop"?

I think of Win stealing that dude's basketball all the time

So which is/was the bigger miscalculation this year, the AF album or the Katy Perry? Either way, the lesson that should be learned is that if you want to make a big statement, you have to put at least a little more thought into what you want to say and how you want to say it. DOYOUSEE? style fake marketing sites can't do the heavy lifting for you.

I'd just like to bring up once again that there is almost nothing ironic about Achtung Baby beyond Bono wearing sunglasses. The album is totally earnest songs about relationships and religion, not some big goof on stardom and consumerism, and the way people bought into the "irony" line remains total bullshit. Maybe by "Pop," sure, but that was much later, and they dropped it, fast.

I think 'banksy' in this context refers to the superficial sloganeering on the new Arcade Fire album - every chorus is just three words shouted repeatedly.

haven't read the review yet, but cynical, shallow ~truth telling~ about our times? xpsts

the Discotheque video aside, Pop as an album is thematically pretty serious and dark. maybe "Miami" is a little bit on the consumerism tip, maybe "The Playboy Mansion" too, but i think w/the latter at least it's going for something else. also Pop is still underrated (even by the band itself) and Arcade Fire has always been vastly overrated, also not as good or fun in their dance music dalliances as U2 was.

Oh, I agree, I don't think Pop the album is particularly ironic, at least not dramatically so. But once they toured behind it, that was the giant lemon, Neil Diamond karaoke sing alongs, the disco balls and glitter suits. I can understand Arcade Fire maybe being bored, or wanting to challenge themselves somehow, but not only are they really the wrong band to do this, it seems way too early in their career for some sort of giant ironic statement on fame. Especially because they are not particularly famous, not in the celebrity Bono rock star sense.

We Don't Deserve Love is my favorite thing in here and it's very different to anything they've done before.

When releasing the singles the band themselves released the opening three songs then skipped the stretch from Peterpan to Infinite Content and released Electric Blue. Which makes me think they knew that stretch is fucking terrible but released it anyway.

It's the first three songs on Side A and the first song on side B, I suspect (there are four short interludes on the album, which I don't count). Yeah, it's old school lp filler.

Speaking of U2, this AF album scans like a similarly mistimed miscalculation to U2's Joshua Tree nostalgia tour. Now, I get the U2 tour was massively successful, so this is totally aesthetic armchair, but if ever we needed (as much as we needed anything from U2 these days) a return of Zoo TV it's now. Likewise, if ever AF should have played to their strengths and returned to earnest and angry catharsis, it's now as well. No one needs ironic dance music from a rock band, period, let alone from these dudes. Let alone a *second* one from these dudes.

"way too early in their career for some sort of giant ironic statement on fame"

Unless you're Lady Gaga.

She's a lot more traditionally celebrity/image-driven than AF. Like, being visible is her (part of her) thing. AF might be successful, but it's a stretch to call them famous. I'd wager people are more likely to take pictures of Lurch Butler because he is really tall than because they recognize him as the guy from AF.

on first listen, this is at the very least way better than reflektor. "we don't deserve love" is a great side b surprise.

Yup. And personally, I can forgive a lot if the final song is good, though I guess that's one of the (many) things that makes me a shit music critic. However, I do love this lyric from that song:

If you can't see
the forest for the trees
just burn it all down
and bring the ashes to me

It's a nice conclusion to the whole 'overload' theme running through the album. And the constant mention of ashes, though I don't entirely get that yet.

It's pretty ridiculous that they've gone from BNM to 5,6, and anyone saying that Peter Pan and Chemistry are awful fake reggae will have to explain why on earth Flashpoint Light is supposed to be better. I'd perhaps even say the former are better because they're more obviously dub-based, which helps since the rhythm section can't and never could play Caribbean rhythms convincingly. However, Arcade Fire have sorta been overrated for a while, so while I think this is a pretty hilarious overcorrection, it's not as if any negative description I've read has been particularly wrong.

This quote from the Pitchfork review is OTM and sums up my frustrations with Trent Reznor's music for the last 15 years as well:

Butler’s commitment to the detached frontman where singing occurs barely or not at all robs songs of their emotional largesse, that basic thing we licensed to Arcade Fire and upon which their entire identity relies.

you guys are not making me want to listen to this album. never did warm up to Reflektor and The Suburbs is massively underrated especially if you trim off like three songs.

Well I mean it's worth listening to once. It's not like it spews razor blades coming out of a speaker. But if you're not up for the feeling of disappointment, maybe pass.

After listening to the album a couple times, I feel the 5.6 is appropriate... maybe it could have been a 6, but this album is worse than "meh". Some songs are downright unenjoyable lyrically and piss me off. Others are boring musically. I felt Reflektor was a huge "meh" and not nearly worthy of that ridiculous 9.2, but still better than this.

Did Reflektor seriously get 9.2? That's ridiculous. And I love Reflektor, but.

damn, 5.6... harsh