Arcade Fire - WE

“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.