The new Arcade Fire album

[James T]

I am half way through and I haven't been this bored in a long time. Disaster!

[Guessed]

I am half way through and I haven't been this bored in a long time. Disaster!

How's the final track? To me they seem like a band who make great album final tracks...

[James T]

Final track is a reprise of the first one, lasts about a minute.... not great.

The 2nd to last track is brilliant. Pure synth-pop goodness.

[jfm55]

The 2nd to last track is brilliant. Pure synth-pop goodness.

That is exactly what I was thinking. I can't recall much of the album, it became background music after a while, but that 2nd to last song made me go check the song title: "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)".

[BzaInSpace]

Deacon Blue x Pitchfork - = Arcade Fire

[Guessed]

Deacon Blue x Pitchfork - = Arcade Fire

Barry, that's the second time i've seen you use an inflamatory Deacon Blue slur.

B,
S.

[BzaInSpace]

Rubbish - I like Deacon Blue. Caledonia-Soul.

Arcade Fire on the other hand...

[Guessed]

Rubbish - I like Deacon Blue. Caledonia-Soul.

Arcade Fire on the other hand...

From another thread about "2007"

Arcade Fire? The Deacon Blue it's Ok to like.

You've got over your issues with them!

! Love Deacon Blue!

What are your thoughts on Big Country....doo-do-do-doo-doo-do-da-doo-da-doo...hearts on FIRE!

[MODLAB]

9-10 NME.

I personally do not like any of their albums... But thought I would share.


M

[TheWarmth]

Their last album was a massive turd. Both the songs and the production were terrible. Suffice to say, I'm not exactly waiting with baited breath for the new one.

[James T]

I think the first 2 were both faultless from start to finish. It's an out there statement but I really think they got everything spot on. They maybe have believed their own hype a little here, the album is too long and a little samey. Mostly sounds like a band trying to sound like arcade fire, rather than actual arcade fire. No doubt there are some great tracks on though, if they had've kept it short and sweet (ie: 10 tracks not 700) it would've been another classic.

[BzaInSpace]

Rubbish - I like Deacon Blue. Caledonia-Soul.

Arcade Fire on the other hand...

From another thread about "2007"

Arcade Fire? The Deacon Blue it's Ok to like.

You've got over your issues with them!

! Love Deacon Blue!

What are your thoughts on Big Country....doo-do-do-doo-doo-do-da-doo-da-doo...hearts on FIRE!

Er, I never had any 'ishyew' with Deacon Blue - that 2007 quote you've startingly dug from My Back Pages was a tongue-in-cheek reference to an old NME quote regarding Nirvana ("...the Guns N' Roses it's OK to like...").

Whilst me quoting in this fashion may have seemed like I was damning Arcade Fire with faint praise, it was more a comment how around that time a million scenesters - and Coldplay - were claiming they were the best band...ever.
I thought they sounded very much like Deacon Blue, who I'm certain most of those chumps would never listen to (wrong haircuts or whatever).

I witnessed this for myself at several parties at that time. It's just a fashion thing for some people, ain't it. What was it the year after? The fucking Hoosiers or some shit.

Bon Iver + Big production = Big Country.

Probably

[James T]

Bon Iver is pretty rubbish, I don't get the hype around that. A true gent though, I hear.

[BzaInSpace]

Oh yeah?

I heard that the truth behind that absurd 'back-story', regarding living in the wilderness whilst making an album (please!), was that it was actually lost people he was feasting on, as opposed to the wild animals in the 'popular' version of the tale...

[Goodnightgoodnight]

I heard he built a cabin out of the bones of women and children he had mercilessly slain, and he shot his own grandfather to get the guitar he wrote the songs on....

Decent record though.

[James T]

He's pals with Steve (RGC/Low) and I've only heard good things about the guy. I have no idea about the backstory, so I can't comment.

The most important point here is that his album is not as good as everyone said.

[radioshack]

He's pals with Steve (RGC/Low) and I've only heard good things about the guy. I have no idea about the backstory, so I can't comment.

The most important point here is that his album is not as good as everyone said.

Agreed! The Bon Iver record is way overrated and kind of sucks, to my ears. The backstory is hardly Robert Johnson, is it?

As for Arcade Fire-most of my friends loved Neon Bible. I myself couldn't connect with it in any way. It did nothing for me. I felt the same, if not so strongly about their first album too. I'm not too fussed to hear a third album.

Which brings me to 'scenesters'. I heard Reptilia by The Strokes today and it hit me how awful that song really is. But it's arguably their biggest song, and am I right in saying the one they used to sell Room on Fire to people? I like the Strokes and all, but that song is probably their weakest. Does nobody stop and go 'wow, those later verses are appallingly written and sung?'

[James T]

Strokes kicked off great, but got pretty crappy. Same with lotsa bands I loved around then. Arcade Fire, Interpol, Strokes, Sigur Ros... all got pretty terrible.

[BzaInSpace]

Maybe i'm just bored and old# ... but I've long come to the conclusion that with a lot of these bands, it's almost guaranteed that the amount of column inches the music press is paid... sorry, enthused enough to write about is inversely proportional to the actual talent.

Let's call them haircut bands, for arguments sake.

Now The Strokes, I don't have anything against them (thank god!) but I remain baffled to date at the amount of hype these (well connected) guys got...hmm.

Even since they've long failed to do anything notesworthy, I still see some news item 'Strokes were in studio today - may have jammed on a new song!'

I wasn't blown away by their supposedly classic debut album, and I found all the NME-gush about how 'they saved rock n' roll' crazy.

They were like a condensed version of a bunch of new wave bands, and for me, didn't add that much to the whole thing.

Worse, which isn't really their fault, they spawned a legion of even duller imitators. Most of which even copied the clothes they wore. The Lib*rtines...a reduction of a bunch of influences inspired by a reduction of bunch of influences etc etc...and crack.

Don't get me wrong, rock n' roll has always borrowed from the past, but what's wrong with adding some excitement and soul and passion, as well as the 'My Sharona' riff?

He's pals with Steve (RGC/Low) and I've only heard good things about the guy. I have no idea about the backstory, so I can't comment.
The most important point here is that his album is not as good as everyone said.

Really James? I think the frankly horriflying rumours concerning cannibalism and cabin-made-of-bones is way more important than some mere album!

'Backstory' - that's it!

I think as the music industry gets ever more desperate, they're concocting (with the artists probably) ever more fantastical 'backstories' to sell their shit. Nothing new there, but the latest ones seem particularly desperate and almost certainly designed for a particular demographic of discerning listener - I mean c'mon, the Bon Iver one was so transparently written for Uncut magazine, the readers of whom are percieved as being fearful of 'new' bands, thus require some gritty 'man in wilderness' fable to accompany the music...

I also recall with a certain amount of amusement and bemusement, that prior to release Let It Come Down was being pegged as the "Spiritualized rehab album..."

As a wiser man once said: "...did they actually listen to it?"

Clearly that album is as much as a celebration (or otherwise) of getting fucked up as say, The Perfect Prescription.

# = not really.

BURN THE FLAG!!!

[mkb]

The thing about the first Strokes album is that it was a touchstone for a certain generation who were 15/16 about the time of its release. I was about 14 when it came out, and I remember the impact it had - it was responsible for getting a lot of people into music.

It did to that generation what Definitely Maybe had done to teenagers (in the UK at least) in 1994.

[radioshack]

I think Is This It sounds better today than it did in 2001, basically because you can listen to it in context rather than imagining a bunch of trashbat-type idiots listening to it and guffawing like it was the best album of all time. It's a good album, but there's filler on it. I swear I felt short-changed when I first heard that record, more than I had ever recalled feeling at any other album I'd heard in my lifetime by that point. Blame the press, not the band....

Which brings me to the 'backstory' thing, which I believe may very well have been exacerbated by The Strokes/NME in 2001. I find now I like records which have no backstory, or I know nothing about. Or if there is a backstory, you have to go looking for it. I remember round about the same time as Is This It? came out, I was getting right into Funkadelic/Parliament. I seemingly knew every iota about Julian Casablancas, but nothing about Funkadelic/Clinton. Where was this record made? When was it made? Who's playing what? How many people are on it? Who wrote what? How long did it take to make? What instrument is making that sound? And what genre would you class Maggot Brain under? Certainly far more fun and interesting than being spoonfed all the information, and then being told if you don't like it you're not cool or you must have some sort of problem. 9 years later, I can safely say Maggot Brain still pisses all over It This It from a great height.

[BzaInSpace]

The thing about the first Strokes album is that it was a touchstone for a certain generation who were 15/16 about the time of its release. I was about 14 when it came out, and I remember the impact it had - it was responsible for getting a lot of people into music.

It did to that generation what Definitely Maybe had done to teenagers (in the UK at least) in 1994.

I have no problem with whatever it is that gets people into music - in fact it should be way more encouraged and promoted over brain-death video games and TV.

But - and this was my point - these bands you mention should surely be a springboard into other stuff?

I was 14 when Definitely Maybe came out (Jesus!) and as far as I can see it set pop music evolution (or whatever) back X amount of years. Their immediate and lasting legacy was heavy record company promotion of countless, stodgy, Beatles-via-Oasis dullards, led to reapprasial of a lot of dull music, and paved the way for the likes of Chris Ev*ns and other dark, Satanic figures to emerge. Noel's laughable comments regarding Jay-Z at Glasto whenever say it all really.

Put it another way, the hideous mass of promotion-heavy, 'Britpop' nonsense obscured even further the release of such classics such as - for example - Pure Phase, whilst the nation gasped at 'Liam's Staircase Made of Gear!'

Pure Phase was quickly forgotten about, and it sort of languishes to this day, whilst total bullshit like ...Morning Glory is feted as some kind of all-time classic... yet the opening 'tune-up' part on 'Medication' - which lasts seconds - had more imagination, verve, daring and excitement that ANYTHING produced by Oasis and their legion of copycat bands put together.

Guys in designer shirts and sunglasses playing the same set every night, down to the note-perfect solos...it's like something out of Orwell for chrissakes! This is the death of imagination, excitement, sex, passion...all the things that I believe is rock n' roll should be about.

And just like The Strokes - it influenced a bunch of bands that sound just like THE STROKES!

Dig your own hole!

Horses for courses, of course...

[TheWarmth]

I may have told this story before, but I saw The Strokes open for Doves in a small Chicago venue (Double Door) right around the time they released their first single on Rough Trade. They didn't have any merch/cds/t-shirts for sale at all at the gig and no one I knew had heard of them. I didn't have any expectations and they fucking blew the roof off the place. Doves were good, but after the show all we could talk about was the Strokes. The hype is annoying, but they are a good band, without a doubt. First Impressions of Earth was a disappointment to me, but that album still has some pretty killer cuts on it. I'm still looking forward to hearing the new one whenever it comes out.

[Guessed]

Rubbish - I like Deacon Blue. Caledonia-Soul.

Arcade Fire on the other hand...

From another thread about "2007"

Arcade Fire? The Deacon Blue it's Ok to like.

You've got over your issues with them!

! Love Deacon Blue!

What are your thoughts on Big Country....doo-do-do-doo-doo-do-da-doo-da-doo...hearts on FIRE!

Er, I never had any 'ishyew' with Deacon Blue - that 2007 quote you've startingly dug from My Back Pages was a tongue-in-cheek reference to an old NME quote regarding Nirvana ("...the Guns N' Roses it's OK to like...").

Barry, I never dug it out; it was drawn from memory.
Apologies if the "ribbing" i intended has came across as a "stabbing".
Sometimes gentle banter doesn't translate in text.

B,
S.

[angelsighs]

I do always try to be wary of hype, but I think it's also important to not go too far the other way and dismiss anything that's hyped as immediately devoid of merit. For what it's worth I think that first Strokes album is really solid and full of some great songwriting and hooks. it's not epochal or anything (although it did benefit from very good timing) but I like it. also like quite a bit of Arcade Fire stuff, and thought they were excellent live when i saw them.

its the shitty, carbon copy, lightweight bands that the Strokes influenced that should be condemned.

NME do hype a lot of utter shite but the law of averages means they get it right sometimes.

[toomilk]

From the Irish Times:

...while the album stand-out for many, Rococo, wouldn’t have sounded out of place on Spiritualized’s Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space.

[Guessed]

I may have told this story before, but I saw The Strokes open for Doves in a small Chicago venue (Double Door) right around the time they released their first single on Rough Trade. They didn't have any merch/cds/t-shirts for sale at all at the gig and no one I knew had heard of them. I didn't have any expectations and they fucking blew the roof off the place. Doves were good, but after the show all we could talk about was the Strokes. The hype is annoying, but they are a good band, without a doubt. First Impressions of Earth was a disappointment to me, but that album still has some pretty killer cuts on it. I'm still looking forward to hearing the new one whenever it comes out.

I saw them in a large outdoor arena prior to ever having heard of them and before there first album landed.
They were inaudible and most people buggered off to see Anthony Pappa.

Some listenable stuff but effortlessly disposable. Much like 90% of music. In fact there's a lot of music i really dont like.

[jadams501]

I'm a big fan of The Strokes, and think they tend to be underrated by dedicated music fans due to a backlash against the enormous hype and their commercial success.

I actually prefer Room On Fire to Is This It... it's like a tighter, more wiry, lean version of the first album, with a bit more variety. Hard To Explain is my favorite song off the first one, and Room on Fire took what I liked about that song and ran with it. They definitely capture a certain weary anomie of too many drinks and too many nights out with unappealing people. I guess it all meant a little more to me in my college days, but I still enjoy it.

The best of First Impressions of Earth is my favorite Strokes music, but the album is definitely a mixed bag with a fair amount of crap on it. You Only Live Once is prob my top Strokes track and there's a number of other great songs, and then some that have cool riffs or melodies but never gel as coherent songs. It sounded like a double-album record of the band falling apart, and with all the solo stuff that's come out I'm really surprised (but pleased) that they're back in the studio.

Some of the solo stuff is pretty good. I don't really care for Albert Hammond's albums from what I've heard, but there's some really good stuff on the bossa-inflected Little Joy and Casablancas' Phrazes for the Young LP. The best of it all together could have made for a great Strokes LP.

[TheWarmth]

Guessed: I'm not sure what you're getting at regarding your story about seeing them at a festival but having it be inaudible. Did you mean you literally couldn't hear the band or are you saying that the overall sound was a mess? Either way, I don't think you can fault the band for the sound at a festival.