Arcade Fire – Everything Now

I loved Reflektor, so I'll definitely be avoiding your recommendation and giving this at least one listen.

 

Good review, but I really hope that I take a different viewpoint than you do. Everything Now and Creature Comfort are great jams, so hopefully the rest of the album will shape up okay. I guess we'll see!

 

"his unremarkable mid-register"

 

Funeral and Neon Bible are classics - two of the best records of the 2000s, if not all time. In my opinion. It's hard to understand that the band who made those made Reflektor (and now this).

 

I second this.

 

Hoping I dig this album a bit more lol. But even if not, I got tix to see them in October. And they are one of the best live acts I've ever seen! Just mind-blowing performances every time! Triple encores and 15 people on stage (somehow) and such.

Other live favs would be: Brand New, Paramore, Bleachers, Damien Rice and of course, Motion City (RIP).

 

I thought Reflektor was fine and expect this to be as well. I never liked The Suburbs as much as others, I guess I just don't see it as their career high point, Grammy win and all.

 

Interestingly, this album has made me think that I might be too harsh on Reflektor. I've listened to some of that record this week and it's surprisingly listenable compared to this.

Those are the best songs on the record.

Ha. I've never been a huge fan of his voice, but he's definitely more interesting when he's straining on high notes.

Guessing the live shows will still be good.

 

I don't really understand the notion that this band has been on the decline. They are one of the more innovative bands in the scene. I think after Suburbs they could have made another three records with their same old sounds, but they really changed it up. Reflektor is a really god record IMO. So I'm looking forward to this. Appreciate the review though. well written as always.

 

The Suburbs doesn't sound anything like Funeral. Neither does Neon Bible. They had pretty distinct identities for themselves on those albums. They could have continued growing as a band without ditching everything that made them appealing.

 

Couldn't disagree more. Reflektor and EN both contain some of their very best songs ( awful sound, it's never over, afterlife, put your money on me, we don't deserve love).

Having said that, it seems like this site almost never posts negative reviews so we appreciate your honest opinion.

This album does contain their worst song in the middle (Chemistry), and a couple meh ones (Peter pan, infinite content) but the rest is so good.

 

I've been preparing myself to be pretty underwhelmed, given the direction they seemed to be going in after Reflektor and not really loving any of the singles. Their first three albums are all up there with my favorites of all-time, and they're still one of my favorite bands, but yeah... this seems like it's going to be disappointing.

Edit: Should clarify that I'm enjoying the new singles a lot, just not nearly as much as prior singles from this band.

 

Yeah I like this. It's not great, but it's solid.

Also, I legit thought "is this the first negative review this site has posted?"

 

Seems harsh but it is your opinion so that's fine.

I think without chemistry and the two infinite contents, this would resonate a lot more with people. Those songs really break the flow of the album, deviate from the general sound and feel of the album and are downright bad songs. Infinite content has driven their social media so much though so I suppose it's served its purpose.

It's nice to hear them still pushing their comfort zone with their use of instruments. There's a lot of songs here that will kill live, and have already when I saw them. I think the album could've done with some editing tracklist wise but it's a very good album following on from a very good album. I always feel the expectation of an Arcade Fire album is hard to live upto post-Grammy win.

 

This review smells like farts

 

I disliked one of the released songs so far but will definitely be checking this out despite this review.

I loved Reflektor, thought it was quite ambitious but also thought the song writing DID hold up.

 

I'm glad you dig it. Wish I liked it more than I did. I kind of struggle to get through a lot of the songs, though.

"Afterlife" is an admittedly great song. I actually like most of disc two of Reflektor, and a few tracks off disc one. I think it could have been a solid single LP if they had cut some of the tracks and tightened up some of the longer songs. I actually liked that album a fair amount when it came out, but have soured on it a lot over the years. There are a few songs on there that I genuinely hate, too, so that's part of the problem.

This is definitely my first negative review since the AP.net/Chorus switch. I don't go out of my way to do them at all. I just wanted to write about this record because I really used to like this band and think their transformation into something that irks a lot of people is kind of fascinating.

"Chemistry" and the "Infinite Content" tracks are bad, but I think "Peter Pan" is on the same level of awful, and I also really don't like "Signs of Life." I'd say there are five songs on the record that are above average. The rest is middling to bad, imo.

Thanks!

 

Yeah I loved Reflektor, and I think this might be the prevailing opinion among most Arcade Fire fans I know. Dafuq is this dude talking about in this review??

 

It's just a reflektor.

 

Just wanted to say that even though I don't really care about AF this review was so well written - good mix of objectivity and subjective opinion, nice flow of ideas, consistent tone - I read the whole thing. Nice job! Can't say the same about the record, apparently

 

I didn't like Reflektor at all at first but it definitely grew on me. I hope the same happens with Everything Now.

 

The funny thing about this review, is I read this and the entire time I felt defensive of Arcade Fire. I wanted to disagree with you. I love those first 3 albums so, so much.

I even loved Reflektor when it came out. But I totally agree that it hasn't held up well. There are a few great tracks but overall very weak and forgettable.

I've been enjoying these new singles okay, but I listened to Funeral the other day and it really hit me how much they actually have declined.

It's depressing. I hope they swing back some day.

Great review!

 

The return to form has gotta be inevitable right? Maybe next album.

 

Creature Comfort is a great track, but I'm not sold on the other single. Great review by the way.