2017 Arcade Fire LP

oooof

http://thequietus.com/articles/22936-arcade-fire-s-everything-now-reviewed-track-by-track

there are a few U2 comparisons upthread and my other thought on that is i think Arcade Fire these days seem to be making a lot of empty gestures that don't really hit very hard. i think the context for Achtung Baby and Zooropa was a lot more compelling as well, the whole European sensibility that permeated those two albums (plus Passengers) was genuinely fascinating and often very haunting. the songs were very personal for the most part but the sense of place and time was palpable.

I agree with that. They are also, as I've noted many times, not the least "ironic." They are indeed personal and often quite affecting in their emotionally honesty, imo.

quietus piece was good. much better thought-out than the rather cruel takedown of Animal Collective they did last year.

There’s an overton window of pop culture and we need to give it a good shove away from this pap. Or, to put it another way: we don't have to put up with this shit. It's really not good enough. You deserve better, we all do.

I'm very glad someone said it

But I'm not sure some of you really do deserve better?

heard the title track blasting out of a car window and would say it qualified as noise pollution

look forward to FJM getting this treatment

But I'm not sure some of you really do deserve better?

If you bought this album you certainly deserve better for the money spent

count me as one of those who never saw what was the big deal w these guys

the "concept" for this is weak as fuck. someone bought them some wind breakers with a logo on it? wow deep man.

If you bought this album you certainly deserve better for the money spent

― octobeard, Wednesday, August 2, 2017 3:38 PM (fifteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

you deserve a one way bike lane into the middle of the ocean

Norman Records‏ @normanrecords · 9h9 hours ago
Finally listening to the new Arcade Fire. Full apologies if you are one of the people we sold it to.

Also, is there any excuse for using (a) woodwind that sounds like the panpipes on The Fast Show and (b) this combination of piano, strings and chanting choir that desperately demands we feel emotional in that Coldplay-Snow Patrol way

Didn't we establish earlier that Wake Up did it first and it's Coldplay and Snow Patrol and a trillion indie bands the ones copying the emotional peak choir thing (which I've always fucking hated btw)

it's all just watered down Hey Jude bullshit

Which is also a terribly annoying song.

Might be a bubble/perspective thing, but I've not seen a fall from grace in this spectacular car crash way as with this Arcade Fire LP for quite some years. And Joan Crawford was otm (reviewers telling a band simply "no, just no"). And not just that one review, or Dorian Lynskey's, but the Quietus review one-ups it and basically brands Win Butler as a misogynist creep (and Anne Wood makes a strong case tbh).

I suppose the fan base are praising AF for their 'daring' effort and sticking up for them fiercely? Regardless, this album is bombing in every respect, except for youtube comments by fans I suppose.

from the quietus:

This is a song of yelling that might have a distant ancestor in Billy Joel’s 'We Didn’t Start The Fire', but it is not as good.

damn

There should be a thread for when writers try to do a takedown and fail to realize they are describing a sample. I don't think anyone would call Francis Bebey 'woodwind that sounds like the panpipes on The Fast Show' if they knew it was Francis Bebey, not Arcade Fire.

was reminded of the Quietus review reading the YA book scandal thing... I can definitely relate to a lot of the reviewer's criticisms wrt Win's bad lyrics, but all the same perhaps it's a bit too personal in its mean-spiritedness? I dunno, Signs of Life is not a great song but maybe this is not a wholly fair description:

This is mean-spirited conservatism that thinks it’s edgy and cool, with the added bonus of sexist undertones

AF publicist boasted on Facebook when the album debuted at number, something like "three number ones in a row, suck it, haters!" Which of course invited people to post all these other shitty bands that have had multiple number one albums in a row.

the publicist is supposed to be some sort of meta "joke"

can't remember if i posted this in here already but that p4k review is an incredible piece of music criticism and one of the best things they've ever published. i haven't heard the record so my jaw dropped when the author mentioned a lyric about a fan "committing suicide to Funeral."

win butler ✔ @DJWindows98
Hey guys. Taking an extended break from this thing, will miss the opinions and the 1 liners :)))) talk later when I got something to say 🌐
3:00 PM - Aug 7, 2017

Yeah, I've been worrying how this band will take a backlash... They've had one coming for a while now, and even if I like Everything Now more and more, it's a weird album and they fucked up the rollout severely. I'm not sure I see them course correcting gracefully.

I get that Win is becoming more and more punch worthy, and people want to take it down, but focusing the critique on him has the unfortunate side effect of belittling what the rest of the band, including Regine, is contributing to the music.

Nobody actually commits suicide to Funeral, btw.

I forgot that Reflektor got a fucking 9.2 on p4k. I would've guessed the backlash would've happened in 2013.

& focus on Win over other band members is obviously because of the lyrics, which appear to be the most loathsome aspect of this record for a lot of people, other than the bad/boring songs. So even if he had co-writers in the band, he bears the brunt as the lead singer.

It's kinda too simple to say he is the lead singer. Regine also sings lead on a song, and joins him on several songs, including Signs of Life. It still diminishes her contributions.

I really like Reflektor, but yeah, 9.2 is ridiculous, and something that invites course correction.

If you sing lead on every single song except for one, you're the lead singer. Does Regine write the lyrics for the songs that she sings backup on? Do they co-write their lyrics? I genuinely don't know. If Win sings lead & writes lyrics on his own, he's the lead singer.

the album review for the new one is the only negative notice i've ever seen them get on PF. they're still posting a new AF story every day.

watch: Win Butler taste tests pasta sauces
Arcade Fire releases cover of Father John Misty song
Arcade Fire announces new line of band member papier mâché head Halloween masks

x-post: Afaict lyrics are credited to the entire band. And I'm not saying he is not an asshole - his behaviour during Here Comes the Nightime at the live show I saw a month ago was off-putting, as I've mentioned a couple of times - but the case of who is saying what is really complicated. And has kinda always been so with this band. In fact, I'd say that's one of the things people probably liked, how much 'we' there always was on earlier albums. And still is, but it is getting a bit different as they're getting older and older, and also still singing about 'boys' and 'girls' and 'kids'.

x-post: Afaict lyrics are credited to the entire band.

but do you think all 27 members of Arcade Fire actually contribute to the lyrics. maybe Win & Regine do. but the way he talks about it, seems like Win writes his songs.

To the earlier conversation about major label signing, notice that Win's smell you later tweet even has a brand logo in it. All this meta layer stuff, if true, is going to be lost on people because AF lack the nuance to pull it off.

The Arcade Fire backlash began circa Neon Bible, and it was hardly surprising.

Their career trajectory: an overhyped debut that has maybe 4 passable songs on it, followed by an immense dud with one good song on it that also happened to be an old song, followed by 10 years of tripe.

'member when Ned posted the Scritti Politti guy's evisceration of AF, almost 10yrs ago? prescient

Sure wish I remembered that.

Neon Bible is their best album imo

yeah i agree, neon bible has held up a lot better than funeral (maybe because its songs haven't been licensed and ripped off as endlessly as those on funeral). i listened to it for the first time in years the other day - it's great, and while the whole anti-organized religion thing seems so dorky and try-hard now, it was still relatively unusual in early 2007 at the end of the GWB administration. "Intervention" is one of their best songs. I always had a soft spot for the title track, too - maybe their most simple song, imo their most beautiful.

perhaps there was indie backlash against them, but The Suburbs won fucking Album of the Year at the Grammy's in 2011. that was really shocking. and yeah, as discussed above, Reflektor got really good reviews for some reason.

wtf is up with "everything now" sneaking into the NB tracklist on Spotify

just crunched the numbers on this, that is not allowed

I've never seen any backlash except via ilx and among small groups of similarly minded folks. Until now.

looking forward to never having to hear about this band again tbh

Too bad. If something sucks ILX is more likely to talk about it.

they're also one of like a dozen arena rock bands that formed after 2000

The Suburbs won fucking Album of the Year at the Grammy's in 2011.

Unfortunately, by the time that 2011 rolled around, stuff like this meant sweet FA.

In fact, by the time 2011 rolled around, "indie" music in general meant sweet FA, its popularity having died crushed by a landfill circa the release of Kings of Leon's 'Sex on Fire' ... in the '10s, only a small handful of already existing (or reformed) "indie" bands have put out decent work. Newer "indie" bands have pretty much had it from the get-go.

what is 'sweet FA'

sweet failure analysis

Fanny Adams (30 April 1859 – 24 August 1867) was a young English girl murdered by solicitor's clerk Frederick Baker in Alton, Hampshire. The expression "sweet Fanny Adams", or "sweet FA", refers to her and has come, through British naval slang, to mean "nothing at all".

In 1869 new rations of tinned mutton were introduced for British seamen. They were unimpressed by it, and suggested it might be the butchered remains of Fanny Adams. "Fanny Adams" became slang for mutton[6] or stew and then for anything worthless – from which comes the current use of "sweet Fanny Adams" (or just "sweet F.A.") to mean "nothing at all". It can be seen as a euphemism for "fuck all" – which means the same. The large tins the mutton was delivered in were reused as mess tins. Mess tins or cooking pots are still known as Fannys.[citation needed]

in other words, Turrican, a little "too soon" maybe