Arcade Fire – Everything Now • Page 3

I came here primarily because I remember the Absolute Punk review, which this site later became, was glowing (95 out of 100 via Metacritic) for Reflektor, which seems to share some similarities to this album so I wanted to see if they had put the same person on it. I guess not.

This is pretty close to the Pitchfork reviewer's take. So, congrats on being close to that? I guess? Not sure which one of you posted first.

There's been a lot of hyperbole about a decline between the songs on Reflektor, which had higher reviews, and this album but the highs of each feel like they could have come from the same recording sessions. So, I have a hard time believing anyone who has 5 or more Reflektor songs that they love won't connect with the music here.

Reflektor vs Everything Now
Afterlife vs Put Your Money on Me
Here Comes the Nighttime vs Creature Comfort
There's not really a Regine solo song on Reflektor so it's closer to Sprawl II vs Electric Blue
Supersymmetry vs We Don't Deserve Love

Those 5 songs compare pretty well with some Reflektor classics in the Arcade Fire catalogue. In fact, if I was going to do a top 25 Arcade Fire songs I think some of those would make the cut:

Neighborhood #1
Wake Up
Rebellion Lies
Power Out
Crown of Love

Intervention
Keep the Car Running
My Body is a Cage
Antichrist Television Blues
Windowsill
No Cars Go

The Suburbs
Modern Man
Sprawl II
Wasted Hours (extended version)
We Used to Wait

Reflektor
Afterlife
Here Comes the Nighttime
Supersymmetry
It's Never Over

Everything Now
Put Your Money on Me
Creature Comfort
Electric Blue
We Don't Deserve Love

That's a better top 25 than almost any band the past 15 years could put out that you could listen to on a crazy road trip and not grow tired of same-y sounds on. Can you do that with Real Estate? The National? Beach House. Their sounds would start to sound same-y pretty quick.

The issue with Everything Now therefore isn't that its best aspects aren't up to Arcade Fire's previous offerings for anyone who's enjoyed their previous music. It's that there weren't enough solid to good songs past those top 5 like there is on every other album they've had. Funeral doesn't have a single song below "solid." Neon Bible's aged amazingly in this Trump era and also doesn't have much "filler." The Suburbs somehow maintained concept while still expanding musically beyond the Americana that makes up its spine. Whether Reflektor does or doesn't depends entirely on one's opinion on the genres dabbled. This is similar in that way. This is basically a 9 track EP if you exclude the 4 interludes (the opening and closers and strange cynical joke misstep of the two 90 second tracks in the middle titled "infinite content." Signs of Life is closer to the Clash's Magnificent 7 meeting Talking Heads and comes closest to that mark as a result but Peter Pan, Chemistry and Good God Damn are closer to falling somewhere around Flashbulb Eyes, Normal Person or You Already Know levels. Maybe better. Maybe worse. Depending on how widespread one's musical tastes are.

So, for sites to love Reflektor and loathe this... Well, it seems strange to me. Like saying you love the IPhone 6 but loathe the 7. The narrative on this for me would be that similar to previous Arcade Fire albums there's about 5 early standouts but that this is really a 9 song album if the interludes are excluded and only 1 of the remaining 4 of those 9 are at the level of what you come to expect from Arcade Fire's songs that aren't among their top 5 or 6 on an album. Whether one wants to punish them for offering only 9 "Real" songs is something I could understand either way. Blast them for the failed concept and the misteps on the interludes but like every Arcade Fire album to date there's at least 5 very good AF songs for people who've liked their past output. Particularly anyone who enjoyed Reflektor.

 

I agree with most of your points.

Because of this, i will only "blast" this record for the following:

• Too many unimaginative interludes
• Overly recycled content/themes/melodies in said interludes
• Sequencing
• The fact that they charged me for an LP of 13 songs when there's really only 8....I don't count Chemistry

 

The writer who gave Reflektor a 9.5 wasn't me and no longer writes for us. I did like that record more at release, but probably would have given it an 8.5 at the time. In retrospect, I'd give it about a 6.5. I'd give this a 4.5, if we're talking numbers. I think it's a big step down from a record I don't like very much. Even the best songs pale in comparison to the songs you compared them to. "Electric Blue," for instance, is actually worse if you compare it to "Sprawl II."

I also disagree with your assessments that they've never made records with filler, or that their top 25 songs stand above any other artist's top 25 from the past 15 years. I think all their records have duds. Until this one, they also had a few next-level songs that made me forgive the songs I didn't like as much. This record doesn't have that.

Most of the writers who have trashed this have admitted either to overrating Reflektor when it came out (which was hard not to do, based on the hype and what this band represented at the time) or to never liking that record in the first place.

 

Here's some irony for us. Win Butler is seen below talking about how it took him awhile to realize Everything Now was a full song.

This must have been before he/they decided to release 3.5 versions of it on their recent record. Guess they decided to triple down on it, haha.

 

This band has an uncanny ability to make records that I absolutely love about 38% of.

Also, "Chemistry" sounds like "Walk the Dinosaur."

 

I realize reviewer turnaround is notoriously high for most zines but I'll never understand why sites don't strive for greater consistency with reviewers on the offerings from certain bands where possible. Even if the former reviewer no longer works here one would think there was some kind of editorial board who felt similarly enough to put their name behind it. Why wouldn't those people put someone like that on a review like this?

Why they'd instead put somebody who disliked like their last album and who hasn't went on record with any of their previous works to establish some element of credibility and perspective for readers is beyond me.

It's almost like just randomly picking writers from a crowd and asking them what they think of music they may have never enjoyed before. Would I ask my uncle, who writes, to review the new Vince Staples? Only if in his review he provided some background on his Love or dislike of rap or Vince Staples other works for perspective to make it easier for people to know where he was coming from. Especially if the site he was writing for had basically declared the previous Vince Staples album one of the best of its year.

 

Except Craig has gone on record about their previous works; I've seen him talk about Arcade Fire extensively on several occasions, including in this review. He's one of three people who were interested in reviewing this album and all three of us have a fairly similar opinion of it. He's also arguably the best writer on this site. There's nothing random about it.

 

I don't know what to tell you. Arcade Fire's last album came out four years ago. This site didn't exist. And even if the person who wrote that review was still here, there's no guarantee their opinion on it wouldn't have shifted. I'm mean, shit, I wrote the Reflektor blurb for our staff EOTY list, if you really want to see what I had to say about it at the time. My viewpoint on it has shifted dramatically since then.

And if you really think I didn't provide any background on my past opinions of this band, I'd suggest you read the review again. I explained quite explicitly what I liked about this band in the past and why this album does not live up to that.

Thanks for having my back, man.

 

Fair enough. My initial point was primarily that I don't see how anyone who loved Reflektor wouldn't be able to enjoy a substantial amount of music from this and you've since elaborated on how you and others used to like that one but have changed your opinions on it and Arcade Fire over time and because of that I'm not surprised that you reacted this way to this one.

Thanks for explaining your reasoning more. I hope by explaining mine you can better understand why there may end up being a divide on this depending on how one feels about Reflektor today. And that's okay. Since when did everyone have to love or hate the exact same things en masse anyway? Interesting movies, books and music can divide people. It's when it doesn't that it generally has missed the mark for all and connected with no one.

 

Chorus editorial board: me and my two cats.

 

I pretty much like EN; a few songs I'm ambiavalent about, but a lot of very great tracks.
It's always funny to me when a new AF record releases, because that record gets blasted, then when the new one releases, the previous one becomes rather loved. I remember when people said Neon Bible hen terrible, then The Suburbs was awful, then Reflektor. Guess the only one who escaped that treatment was Funeral.

On and on, we don't know what we want.

 

Did I really just see someone compare Sprawl II to Electric Blue favourably?

 

Not favorably. Not considering the strength of that song in their overall output but if that's a 10 out of 10 from them Electric Blue is at least a solid 7.5.

Out of curiosity I've been listening to the Talking Heads 77 and remain in light as well as the Clash's Sandinista! more this week and rotating in the odd Arcade Fire song from Everything Now and I've been pleasantly surprised by how well it comes together. There's some Abba in the mix but those two bands remain huge inspirations on this band and the best work from Arcade Fire off both of their last albums is up there with all but the best that both bands put out.

If Arcade Fire had somehow released the best works off Reflektor with the best works of Everything Now the album would have rivaled Funeral in their catalogue. Make this playlist:

1) Everything Now
2) Reflektor
3) Here Comes the Night Time
4) Electric Blue
5) Afterlife
6) Put Your Money On Me
7) We Exist
8) Creature Comfort
9) It's Never Over
10) Porno
11) We Don't Deserve Love
12) Supersymmetry

Put that playlist together. 7 off Reflektor. 5 off Everything Now. That's a fucking spectacular album of 70s/80s art rock and synth driven alt pop for fans of that era of music who want more of it.

If you don't like music from that era or synth driven alt pop sung with vocals remiscent of David Byrne (and occasionally Neil Young when he's singing softer) then the music's just not for you but the issue hasn't been the best of these two albums and thankfully some critics have acknowledged that by remarking at the moments of ear candy and splendor on both.

 

Win Butler owns up to them trying to be ABBA on Sprawl II, Tunnels, & Everything Now: