2017 Arcade Fire LP

'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

guys, if you found the album cycle offputting and the music not to compensate, I regret to inform you that you, my tiny child, have merely ~misunderstood the art~ http://www.vulture.com/2017/09/arcade-fires-win-butler-on-everything-now-album-rollout.html

(were there this many people during the Reagan and/or Bush years suggesting less-than-glowing reviews of their record sprung from The Forces That Elected Not My President?)

(by "this many" I suppose I mean "also any" but I suspect we're going to see more of this rhetorical move in the next three-to-seven years)

What a dumb interview (his answers, not the questions). So full of himself. What is the point of proving that if you intentionally spread misinformation about your band and music people will believe or further spread said misinformation?

That said, their plan might have worked had a) the music indeed resonated and b) had they followed it up with some sort of full-U2 Zoo TV tour spectacle. Maybe there's still time for that, but grouchy Win "you don't get it, maaaan" interviews aren't helping things.

His lecture tour with Darren Aronofsky'll be great.

"Bad On Purpose: The Made-You-Think/Mission Accomplished" Tour.

Lol Ned.

His answers are embarrassing.

Haha Josh

Easily my favorite bit is the "Well the FRENCH got us!"

my least favorite bit is the way it throws out generalities about how broken music journalism is and how toxic the political climate is, things designed to make people nod along (particularly music journalists, perpetually looking for something, anything, anyone, to validate their despair at their earning potential), and uses those generalities to sneak through some real bullshit undetected. the dress code thing is a good example. the way Butler talks about it, you'd think the story was completely manufactured. (by the town of Macedonian teenagers who weren't good enough at fake news to reach the Trump leagues?) but it wasn't -- there was, in fact, an email requesting exactly what was reported. the guidelines, furthermore, are pretty much standard for anything that's going to be filmed -- logos have to be blurred out in post, solid white and red tend to film poorly -- but "look, this is how TV production works" is quite a different statement from "this email that clearly exists doesn't exist, how dare you report on it."

of course,

given he's outright said it there's a decent chance the postmortem interview will get a subsequent postzombie interview in which he says "hahaha, you journalists were fooled into being irritated by my deliberately irritating statements, gotcha!"

(this isn't just limited to arcade fire, obviously -- a side effect of aforementioned journalism climate is that PRs now have a fantastic strategy of calling anything that deviates from their manufactured narrative "fake news"). doesn't help that the most visible people who are the most visibly "skeptical" are right-wing cranks

He comes across as being lost in 2017 imo. In understandable despair about fake news and such, but shooting from the hip entirely with an ill advised campaign.

Stuff like this:

The other part of it is that when you make a record in this modern context, it instantly gets refracted in the media. There’s all this side content, this trail that follows everything. So we thought that maybe we’d just make all that content, as opposed to just making the art. That stuff was going to get made anyway, so why not make it ourselves?

And this:

we just wanted to see where fake-news articles about the band would go. The media is built for clicks now, and we were trying to see firsthand how it all works.

And this:

So it was really interesting to us to see what got picked up about Arcade Fire. That idea plays into what we were doing as well: We were providing the ammunition for people who wanted to write negative things about the band: Here you go! Here’s something to be outraged about!

seems like despairing cluelessness and, quite frankly, it's cynical. Which he categorically denies, saying it's maybe their most "earnest" record or whatever. And then we're back at the beginning, that the roll-out was a complete mismatch with what they are trying to express. But no, we didn't get it. Except the French. And Europe. Which is bogus btw.

Also, Katherine otm.

He's such a dick.

Also, as i said on facebook about this: perhaps next time spend less time "creating" "side content" and more time writing lyrics that aren't awful.

ah yes, France, an oasis of reason and kindness, where one-third of the populace did not vote for a far-right-wing demagogue

Maybe the lyrics were bad on purpose. Everything about that? And you fell for them! Sucker.

I call this the Frank Zappa defense. Oh, you thought the music was brilliant? Well it was a piss take, and you fell for it. Oh, you thought the music was terrible? Well, it was terrible on purpose, and you fell for it!

haha, that should be ever think, not everything. Stupid phone. Now I know exactly how Trump feels.

infinite content, we're infinitely covfefe

Oh Will, you asshole you're tarnishing whatever good songs the band previously had with that attitude. He's turning into indie BIlly Corgan.

shocking that a guy who hadn't lost a parent or lover or sibling but named his debut album funeral anyways would eventually be revealed as tone-deaf cluebag

The infuriating part is that he refuses to believe what people didn't like about the album was the music, but the campaign. A couple of years from now when the album is revised without the "fake news" context, will the reviews be kinder to the music and lyrics? I doubt it.

i am lolling at this guy and his Adbusters for Dummies.

its pretty easy to ignore though. he seems genuinely stunned that a record label would be successful at doing the thing that they do. he isn't saying anything new, criticizing internet hate is the easiest thing in the world to do.

Internet Outrage is the Background Radiation of the modern era. everyone exploits it constantly. there is nothing insightful about noting this, people note this constantly, all day long, every day. it just makes it more pathetic when you try and pretend that pointing this out is some brilliant thing people aren't picking up on.

maybe try no concept next time this over achieving pomo marketing is off putting.

Like I said, he could have said everything he needed to say on the tour. There was absolutely nothing about "Achtung Baby" the album that tied it to the themes of the Zoo TV tour. The difference, of course, is that "Achtung Baby" is awesome, and by all accounts this Arcade Fire album is not. Start with good music, music that means something to people, and you earn the right to be heard, let alone the right to preach.

he should put 'Band Is Really Amazing At Music' on a T shirt instead.

Like I said, he could have said everything he needed to say on the tour. There was absolutely nothing about "Achtung Baby" the album that tied it to the themes of the Zoo TV tour. The difference, of course, is that "Achtung Baby" is awesome, and by all accounts this Arcade Fire album is not. Start with good music, music that means something to people, and you earn the right to be heard, let alone the right to preach.

― Josh in Chicago, Friday, September 22, 2017 4:29 PM (fifty-eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This is interesting and otm. The huge difference - apart from AB being a great album - is that U2 did succeed in merging the earnest and the obscene/cynical, mostly through Bono's Mephisto personage. It was a very clever move to comment on consumerism by taking on a Faustian guise, and take nothing away from 'saviour Bono' (for better or for worse).

The other part of it is that when you make a record in this modern context, it instantly gets refracted in the media. There’s all this side content, this trail that follows everything. So we thought that maybe we’d just make all that content, as opposed to just making the art.

ban optics metaphors

Band Is Really Amazing at Music and Plays a Live Show and People Cry Because It’s So Beautiful

I’m increasingly starting to believe that every musician is a talented, empathetic, normal person, at first, but that the mechanisms and pressures of having to sustain a business based on your ability to document your experience in saleable and relevant ways turns people into antisocial bizarro versions of themselves

Just going to post what I posted earlier:

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.

― Frederik B, 8. august 2017 23:48 (one month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The final song on the album ends If you can't see / the forrest for the trees / just burn it all down / and bring the ashes to me Which is lovely. So why the fuck did they decide to sell that sentiment by planting more trees?

I have worked with and been personal friends with a number of clients through their ascendency, their halcyon days, a period of backlash, and then the doldrums that follow, and I think that it's a far more terrifying complicated and beautiful thing than anybody could ever imagine

I think about it with all my present clients who are currently golden-children-who-can-do-no-wrong, seeing their management teams throw absolutely everything their way, seeing, literally, reality bend to meet their needs, as private jets are hired to accommodate a night out, or orchestras summoned to magically appear onstage to Elicit Even More Pathos, and seeing tens-of-thousands-of-dollars well-spent to make everything work and feel exciting and hold the audience's attention

And then there's this moment where the person and their music loses all its potential energy, and now it feels like an inert presence, and their words and the sentiment of their music no longer feel valuable but actually unwanted, and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy as their songwriting voices become solipsistic, and we're left with whatever-the-fuck-it-is that this music is trying to do

Now, see - and you would absolutely know better than I - but Arcade Fire never seemed like superstar personalities. That is, people like the music and they are great performers, and that is why they're popular, not because Win is some pin-up or Regine gets on TMZ or something. They seem (and again, could be wrong) like they could easily go out anywhere and not be recognized/bothered, or chased down the street or whatever. A lot of pop stars definitely go down the rabbit hole of fame you observe, but I think that's often because they can't go out, or are so famous they need to be isolated or isolate themselves. People like Bono, or Bowie, or maybe even, say, someone like St. Vincent, recognizable icons; I suspect they exist/existed in a parallel universe of private back rooms, surrounded by other famous faces. They have to be careful with their statements, because people parse and misquote. They have to be careful who they hang out with, because people are always taking their picture. But Arcade Fire? They just seem like the wrong vectors/vessels for jaded cynicism. I don't know if someone's been whispering in their ear, or if they really feel like they have something to say but don't know how to say it, but it just feels wrong from them. Like someone yelling "pay attention to me!" and then saying something silly, and then complaining that everyone is listening and hearing the wrong things. Almost as if they wanted to be jaded rock stars as a pretense to thematically protesting the role.