While it worked wonders for Sonny and Cher, the marriage seems to be an untapped mechanism in popular music, which may be a good thing in all likelihood. Considering most pop songs deal with the topics of heartbreak and lust, an album full of ""What's for dinner, honey?"" just isn't nearly as marketable.
Yet the Montreal matrimony of Win Butler and RAcgine Chassagne raised one of the most iconic bands of the 21st century in the Arcade Fire. But like any marriage, however, their first commercial release Funeral bestowed plenty of awkward moments, contemptuous skirmishes and a few broken plates, but was still one of the more intriguing records to date. The new release Neon Bible tries to establish a truce to this feisty relationship, but in the end, still ends up sleeping on the couch.
The album opens to the sticky, spirited ""Black Mirror,"" a song much like the Funeral opener ""Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)"" with a pulsating bass and piano blend. ""Keep the Car Running"" sounds like your typical radio-ready single packed with hoots and hollers from Butler, but it's really nothing to get too excited about. For a title track, ""Neon Bible"" is sure to generate a solid 2:16 worth of blank stares from listeners for this very unusual composition: even by Arcade Fire standards.
Neon Bible eventually swims its way up to the surface with the boisterous ""Interventions,"" the root-tootin' rockabilly ""(Antichrist Television Blues)"" and the Neil Young meets Issac Brock ditty in ""Windowsill."" All three are pleasing to the ear, yet are so chock full of social messages on war and religion that you might get the sudden urge to stop bathing and save a panda. After that love making session with Michael Moore, Arcade Fire goes back to having fun with music in ""The Well and the Lighthouse,"" a key track with an awesome breakdown towards the end.
Despite being such a hoity-toity thinking-man's record to this point, the pensive ""Ocean of Noise"" charms with swishing reverb and a spine chilling brass and string crescendo. Neon Bible then completely deviates and gets totally awesome with ""Black Wave/Bad Vibrations"": presenting the shrieking Chassange sputtering French over what sounds like the theme song from the original Zelda video game—only to be refuted by the Butler's brute, apocalyptic anthem.
""No Cars Go"" blasts Neon Bible in all directions with this vivacious ballad that manages to incorporate just about every instrument on the planet. Now it's quite a stretch, but if Butler had a grittier voice, and if the listener had a broad imagination, ""My Body is Cage"" sounds eerily similar to Tom Waits' ""Dirt in the Ground,"" from the affable Bone Machine album.
The Arcade Fire may have pushed the political-vigilante envelope a bit too heavy in Neon Bible, but that should not take away from the fact that this is still a dazzling, intense album that settles as a righteous counterpart to the monumental Funeral. Sure, their hearts were in the right place, but with thousands of other musicians campaigning how ludicrous the American government is—their cause is simply too stale to inspire.
