Arcade Fire - Neon Bible

Quick summary: In 2004 Arcade Fire released their debut album Funeral which earned loads of praise and garnered numerous album of the year nods. The fact that such a young band could write music of such beauty, emotion, and energy was very impressive. Funeral was a brilliant release beaming with confidence and natural songwriting ability that led many (including me) to question whether or not they could ever live up to Funeral’s brilliance. So in one of, if not the most anticipated releases of the year, Funeral’s follow up would answer the question: Is Arcade Fire just a flash in the pan, or is this a band that can take the next step and become one of the most significant music groups in the world today? No pressure huh? Well, on Arcade Fire’s sophomore effort, Neon Bible, I think it is easy to say that these guys are for real and have established themselves as band to be reckoned with.

Right from the start "Black Mirror" sets the tone for Neon Bible not only musically as bigger, grander and more expansive effort but also lyrically as being more focused on worldly matters rather than the intrinsic emotional experiences of Funeral. Because of an increased budget and this more polished sound, the raw emotion of Funeral is slightly lost but that is not to say that Arcade Fire has lost the emotion that made them so appealing. This is still an immensely emotional album, it’s just not the kind of emotion that is going to make you cry like Funeral could, but rather Neon Bible offers anathematic tunes about politics, religion, entertainment among other things that’ll give you chills and get your blood boiling as you fist pump and air drum to keep up with the rhythm. While a more ambitious album musically than Funeral, the songwriting is more straightforward and conventional sacrificing the odd chamber music characteristics of Funeral. But with the expanded instrumentation, it is still the basics of catchy rhythmic songwriting that make this a more hummable and sing along album than Funeral.

Upon hearing the endlessly catchy "Keep the Car Running", the Bruce Springsteen comparisons Win Butler vocals and the rest of the band are garnering for this album become evident although it gets downright scary with "(Antichrist Television Blues)" later in the disc. In one of the albums strongest songs, Arcade Fire have created just about the best americana song that can be expected to be written from a band hailing from Montreal, Canada. Other tracks of note include "Intervention" which is the emotional high of the album and "Ocean of Noise", "The Well and the Lighthouse", and "Windowsill" that exemplify the maturing and confident songwriting evidenced by complete shifts in song structure late in the tracks. The album ends with a cover of their own song "No Cars Go" and it proves to be the most triumphant track musically on Neon Bible, while "My Body Is A Cage" closes the album showcasing the ambition of Neon Bible by using the church organ to its fullest. There are missteps on Neon Bible, although few and far between. While there are certainly no skippable tracks, there are some clunky lyrics and as said the increased production budget clearly extinguished some of the raw emotion that fans came to love from Funeral. However, Neon Bible is still an album that is evidence of a band that can write inspired music capable of putting the group in the same breath of transcendent bands such as The Clash and U2 just to name a couple.

So the inevitable question is whether or not Neon Bible is as good as Funeral. I don’t think I can answer that question because it doesn’t really matter as that is not Neon Bible’s purpose. Funeral and Neon Bible are two distinctly different albums that at the time of their respective releases could not be substituted for either one. When all is said and done both albums will be looked as equally important parts of the group’s catalog. Arcade Fire has created just the album they wanted to and that is an album that establishes the group as a band with something to say that will be looked on as an important part in the musical realm. So with Neon Bible, Arcade Fire has taken the next step into musical greatness and I personally am going to sit back and take joy in the fact that I get the privilege of witnessing a band that is well on their way to being considered the next great awe-inspiring musical act.