The Suburbs

After the brilliance of their debut Funeral, Arcade Fire seemed to be in danger of never being able to match it. It was so good, the second album was almost inevitably going to fall short. Neon Bible was never less than good, and had its great moments (No Cars Go, Intervention, Windowsill) but seemed to be hinting at heading in a U2 style direction of preachy bombast, and suggested they might ultimately become just another 'big' stadium band. Which makes the varied and expanded musical palate of The Suburbs all the more welcome. It is an outstanding piece of work which shows just what a great band this is.

Unlike either of the first 2 albums, this one got me on first listen, and has been getting better and better ever since. A month on repeat on my car cd player has not detracted from its sustained excellence. 16 tracks could be insufferable from a less interesting band(and could be regarded as commercial suicide in the age of the ipod shuffle), but here it ensures there is so much to discover that it takes weeks to get at all tired of it. I don't think I have ever heard an album of this length without a single bad track (Rococo is the only one I sometimes skip) and where you don't want to pick out favourites, but play the whole thing.

Of course it helps that there is a continuity of theme and lyrics throughout the album, as was the case with Funeral, but here more so, with repeated lines and themes turning up in different songs connecting the whole thing and giving the album a circularity and feeling that this is a piece of work in several parts, not just a collection of songs. But there is also a variety of styles here that the band has not previously explored, from the punky Month of May to the electro pop of Sprawl 2. Overall it is more restarined and low key without so much of the massive crescendos we are used to hearing from them, but with more subtlety and layers to discover. Some of my personal favourites include the 2 Half Light tracks, which are both beautifully atmospheric and evocative, and sound like nothing they have done before; Suburban War which slowly builds momentum and emotion, and contains the great lines 'now the cities we live in could be distant stars/ and I search for you in every passing car'; and City With No Children with its irresistable repeated riff.

Lyrically and vocally its easily Win Butler's best effort, gone are the occasinally clunky rhymes and in its place is maturity of voice and songcraft. Regine, who was a little in the background on Neon Bible also sounds great on lead vocals on Empty Rooms and Sprawl 2, and the two of them duet to great effect on Half Light 1.
The Suburbs sounds more like a sequel to Funeral than NB did, both musically and with its themes of neighbourhood and growing up, but it also shows Arcade Fire have moved on from Funeral, expanded their range, and matured with new subtleties and nuances, whilst living up to the promise of their debut. A briliantly crafted record from a band in a league of their own.

Buying a new album from a favourite band is always a stressful process.

I purchased the album blind (or is it deaf) on the day of release and was initially disappointed as the new offering was neither a Funeral II or an appendix to the Neon Bible. Thankfully, as is often the case, a difficult initial listen normally signals future potential and the album is now a fixture of the playlist on my phone, laptop and car.

Like the other reviewers, I can hear influences from Blondie to Springsteen in addition to the common Arcade Fire "wall of sound" elements. Current favourites are the "Suburban War" and "Rococo". My only criticism would be that I would have liked to hear more vocals from Regine, who's style does some resemblance to Bjork on occasion.

The nature of Arcade Fire's music does not (in my opinion) suit 30 second previews, if you are a new to the band try to listen to a few tracks in full before deciding.

Ignore the First review! he posted the review long before its release without any information on the final product.
YOUR GETTING A REALLY GOOD DEAL HERE!
This is definite buy for any arcade fire or any new fan whos heard any of suburbs singles so far.

Its Great Package. Firstly you get Original 16 tracks of "The Suburbs". All excellent. On top of that you get 2 new Mixes of existing tracks and 2 New Songs + A rare Demo of Sprawl 1. Culture War and Speaking Tongues are both great songs, and speaking in tongues features David Byrne of talking heads. Wasted Hours has been redone. you then get a code which allows you to download 2 more songs for free. so overall you get 20 songs on this album.

You then get a DVD of "scenes from the suburbs" by Spike Jones, Its a hipster Movie, buts its a nice fan service to arcade fire fans and accompanies the album well. then also get a making of video on how arcade fire made the album. The video for the suburbs is actually act as trailer for the Movie.

Finally you get 60 page book which includes some fine photography that looks in to the Movie and includes the images of band etc alongside a full lyrics of whole album. Was this needed? probably not but its nice feature that they added.

overall if your new to arcade fire, purchasing this album is better then purchasing the standard version. If you've already bought the excellent original your getting a lot of fan service from this album, this is more then 2 bonus tracks, its one of best deluxe versions I've seen.