When most of the musical world became acquainted with Arcade Fire via their 2004 debut Funeral, there was no trend or gimmickry by which someone could easily characterize the band; they weren't wearing futuristic costumes, rehashing '60s rock 'n' roll, or auto-tuning their vocals. All anyone could talk about was how fucking good the album was—like, astonishingly, breathtakingly good, and even more-so because just a month earlier, almost no one had heard of the band.
After five years in the spotlight, including performances with the likes of U2, David Bowie and Bruce Springsteen and headlining countless festivals, everyone has heard of the Arcade Fire, but that hasn't made it any easier to get a handle on why Funeral is as spectacular as it is. The band mixes together elements from a range of genres–including post-punk, indie rock, '90s emo, arena rock and chamber music—into something that's immediately approachable but also raw, starkly original and undeniably powerful.
Where does that power come from? Funeral runs the gamut of emotion from misery to joy and hope to terror, but it's best when mixing them all together, as frequently happens throughout its ten songs about love, loss and, of course, death. At some times the band sounds like a crowd of people huddled together for survival, at others like a thundering protest march, but never contrived or overly melodramatic. It seems like a shame to have to choose favorite tracks. ""Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)"" spans the range of the whole album, from twinkling pianos and strings to a blowout chorus and back. ""Neighborhood #2 (Laika)"" and ""Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)"" push things toward fist-pumping anger, while ""Wake Up"" and ""Rebellion (Lies)"" are the wild-eyed anthems that made the Arcade Fire one of the world's most exciting live bands.
After Funeral's raw intensity, the relative restraint of 2007's Neon Bible was bound to be a bit of a let-down as far as adrenaline goes. But while the Arcade Fire's sophomore album rarely hits the same emotional peaks as their debut, Neon Bible is a spectacular record in its own right. Stretching the band's range with the occasional ballad and shifting the focus toward politics and religion, the album sounds a bit bleaker than Funeral. ""Keep the Car Running"" is a sharp break with the band's earlier sound, a mostly acoustic pop song about paranoia that keeps building momentum without any need for a chorus. ""Intervention,"" on the other hand, is just the opposite. Driven by the sound of a huge pipe organ, the song builds up to a shattering climax that rivals anything in the band's catalog. Win Butler's lyrics are more inventive on Neon Bible as well, especially on ""Antichrist Television Blues,"" an unhinged, sometimes frightening message from a devoutly Christian stage parent to their young daughter.
Arcade Fire have virtually exploded over the past five years from relative obscurity to the world's most recognizable indie rock band, but there's still plenty of room to grow. If the band continues its phenomenal track record over the next decade, they'll not only be one of the best groups in rock 'n' roll history, they might even join eminent fans like Bowie and Springsteen in being one of the most popular.
