posted on Wednesday, February 08, 2006 1:36 AM
by
Endie
Arcade Fire - Funeral review
The reviews I find most useful tell me "if you like such and such a band, or this other album, you'll probably enjoy this". With Arcade Fire's
Funeral, finding a comparison is a uniquely challenging task. You really have to spread the net wide to find influences or similarities in contemproary music.
In places, with their layered, complex, slightly ambient sound, Arcade Fire sound a bit like Sonic Youth's Hoarfrost or Diamond Sea. But the addition of strings, multiple percussionists and the occasional accordian, the comparison is not perfect. Similarly, if you liked some of the Icelandic band The Sugarcubes' earlier work, then you'll probably like Funeral. But that's not to say that they're the same.
In places, the intentionally formless and flowing nature of their songs akes them sound a little like The Fall, but scored for performance by strings, acoustic guitars, multiple voices and the like.
The closest comparison is with the song Hoppípolla by another bunch of Icelanders, Sigur Rós, currently getting a lot of MTV2 play (the ones with the video of old folks playing at pirates and jumping in puddles): gentle, melodic and tuneful.
You can tell that it's a struggle. Arcade Fire are - and this phrase is overused, I know - quite unlike anyone else in the mainstream music scene right now.
The tracks exude joy (surprisingly for a record largely inspired by loss). You will know Wake Up when you hear it - beautiful, uplifting and accessible, unsurprisingly the trendier end of the ad agency has lept on it, using it for a BBC season trailer.
In The Backseat is another cracking track: you think you have a grip on it - a strong feeling of the Cocteau Twins from their Blue Bell Knoll period, although with an occasional guitar line closer to the late 80's or early-90's post-Manchester indie scene of someone like Ride - and then suddenly you have tympanies, a Beatles-esque cello line and some melodic violin scoring. It's like a brilliantly accomplished band started jamming with the string section of a chamber orchestra after the recording session. It finally dies away with pizzicato strings, fading into the silence.
Rebellion has been overshadowed by the radio-friendly, hook-rich Wake Up for a long time, but may perhaps prove to be an even better song, with a driving, repetitive bass, piano and drum combination driving the song along: a whirling, spinning, racing joy of a song.
This slow burner of an album has been around since 2004 in the USA, and has gradually built up a following through internet word-of-mouth and, more recently, MTV2 first playlisting it then making it their album of the year. I've never given five stars in an Amazon review before, but I did for this album.