Arcade Fire - WE

The Arcade Strikes Back

new song is great imo :)

best they’ve founded in a while imho

There is also this:

"End of the Empire I–IV
I. Last Dance
II. Last Round
III. Leave the Light On
IV. Sagittarius A*"

Bottom line is "Prelude" brings it from 39:44 to 40:14

the new song sounded a lot better the second time around, hope this album is good as i have lost track of them with the last few

yes the publicity for REFLEKTOR was pretty cringeworthy

That's when everything went wrong - it's like they got too full of themselves. In its defense, Reflektor could've been a good solid LP had they thrown out half of it. IIRC, the chaff was mostly concentrated into the second disc, but I haven't touched it in close to eight years.

Just heard “The Lighting I, Ii” on radio and was underwhelmed. Kinda melodramatic.

But that's the part of their schtick I enjoy!

I like the new single. It approaches the 'live' sound of Funeral that I loved so much.

Arcade Fire are set to perform a special livestream show in New Orleans, Louisiana this Friday (April 1).

Per an official listing, fans will be able to “experience Arcade Fire from every angle with real-time, multi-camera views” via “the power of AT&T 5G”. Support comes from King Princess and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.

the openers are on now and AF will be coming on in about two hours:
https://www.att.com/5Gfanzone

this is now ON, not going to watch it all but it's sort of cool with four different camera angles

so either AT&T 5G sucks or too many people are online watching this as it freezing all over the place for me

i have tuned in here and there but will say that "Age of Anxiety II (Rabbit Hole)" sounds like a Disco anthem, great song

They shoulda used Rogers 5G

hoping this is a bounce back, weirdly encouraged by the pretentious tracklisting

― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Friday, March 18, 2022 9:16 AM (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

Some litmus tests: Does the thought of Butler solemnly declaring, “I unsubscribe” — over piano that evokes “Imagine” and The Sophtware Slump, on a nine-minute multi-movement saga called “End Of The Empire I-IV”

i take it back

Complete the sentence:

Does the thought of Butler solemnly declaring, “I unsubscribe” — over piano that evokes “Imagine” and The Sophtware Slump, on a nine-minute multi-movement saga called “End Of The Empire I-IV”

1. Make you violently ill?
2. Increase the world total of suffering?
3. Make you want to hurt yourself?

wouldn't be a new arcade fire album without clunkers like that

“Born into the abyss/New phone, who’s this?”

cleaning up your inbox can take a long time, tbf

You know, I’m happy for those of you who will find joy in this record. Everyone deserves to be musically happy. (I really mean this.)

this is definitely more successful than the last two albums. not really anything special but it's solid and very streamlined compared to how wildly inconsistent those albums were.

nothing else resembles their earlier material like "the lightning" though, a fair bit of the album follows on from the synth-pop of the last two albums but it's generally executed a bit better.

only real dud is "end of the empire" which as a 9 minute suite is both underwhelming and overwrought and has butler's biggest lyrical clunkers of the album but it's nowhere near some of their previous nadirs, just a bit boring rather than a trainwreck

Looking forward to finally listening to this tomorrow

was able to finally listen to the first half of this while taking a shower. so far so good and really like "Age of Anxiety II (Rabbit Hole)," hope to finish this sometime tonight.

https://slate.com/culture/2022/05/arcade-fire-we-album-reviews.html?fbclid=IwAR2ChfXjyCRJeAJwvSo1b1NL7vbuWv7bVlT0DW4HdsT96cZeju20fH0mmCo

weird review bc it's not like this is getting overwhelmingly positive reception - consensus seems to be more around a lukewarm "well it's better than the last one or two". there are some rave reviews but there were even for everything now.

and what's with the insistence that "generation a" should have been on the album when it's just as bad as the very worst material from everything now

https://www.nme.com/news/music/arcade-fire-seemingly-speak-out-about-abortion-rights-during-snl-performance-3220480

I really like this album

xxp a thesis in search of an album

made a couple false starts with this. it's just too dang sunny out.

i like “creature comfort” more than any song on the new one :(

and frankly the 1975 are way better at attempting whatever win’s trying to do lyrically

With this album as the final bit of evidence I need, I've concluded that I just don't think the Arcade Fire make very interesting synthpop, though they try to do it again and again.

And End of the Empire is an absolutely lethal, endless dead spot so early in this record.

I like do like The Lightning, and Lookout Kid made me smile.

and frankly the 1975 are way better at attempting whatever win’s trying to do lyrically

a big part of the difference is that matty has fun with it while win always comes across as so self-serious

but the lyrics on this one aren't as much of an active hindrance as they were on the last one, it's only really "end of the empire" where how bad they are is at the forefront like on everything now. i somehow barely notice the goofy lines in "rabbit hole" ("born into the abyss/new phone who's this").

the real successes here are "age of anxiety" i & ii and "the lightning". only really dislike "end of the empire" but the rest is a bit undercooked. incredibly sad that coldplay were recently able to do a 10 minute epic better than arcade fire.

“rabbit hole” is very…. bad imo

surface level pleasant but doesn’t work as a song for me in the least

i thought i would feel better about this record after a second listen but instead i’m vowing to never listen to “end of the empire” voluntarily again

i also… don’t get “lookout kid.” melody is cloying as fuck and indefensible opinion ahoy but i think kids are cool and all but i’m never having any of my own and i don’t give a shit about what the song is trying to say

very disappointed to discover that despite the pretentious af tracklist there are only two songs with any interrelated parts at all, “end of the empire” (ew) and “the lightning” (second half is dope and way too short)

i mean now that i’m looking at the tracklist i’m realizing they telegraphed this a bit

I was basically liking this as background music and then one song came on that made me be like "ugh, what's this, it sounds like the thing that's supposed to be the big emotional number from a musical that closed in previews" and it's "End of the Empire," the same one all you guys hate

the first track is really good and it totally gets you amped for an arcade fire record that the rest largely fails to be

also “race and religion”…. woof

First two tracks not bad before it gets equal parts dull and pompous.

Interesting how "Unconditional II" becomes the second stadium rock band (after Coldplay's "Talk") to borrow heavily from "Computerlove".

Kinda feel like New Order's "Temptation" and "Procession" are a wellspring of inspiration for this band too; I started humming the former's melody over the snares of the Rabbit HOle track.

lol okay, yes, "End of the Empire" is terrible. The first part, the part that was a super transparent Bowie bite, wasn't bad, but it just kept getting worse and worse.

I'm not sure about this album now, I was impressed when I played it for the 1st time as background music but on closer inspection it's not really hitting me.

They also have a commercial out that is playing all the time for Dolby System's, which is strange. It hypes the new album and Dolby.