Arcade Fire - Everything Now (July 28,2017) Album • Page 19

I don't have strong opinions about most of the rollout but the StereoYum is perfect, hits the nail right on the head.

 

Neon Bible was actually the first Arcade Fire album to click with me. Antichrist Television Blues is a jam.

 

The thing is, they've had ostentatious album rollouts since The Suburbs, which had that music video that literally took Google Earth footage of where you lived and put it in the video. It's a buzz-building mechanism that was wildly effective at generating awareness; it's just that it also had a chilling effect on reviews as well. Personally, I think the fake Stereoyum site was the only bridge too far because it demonstrated that they actually cared about what critics said. That said, the writing was hilarious.

 

It's silly to think that everyone's reviewing this album in a vacuum. The music criticism space is an ecosystem; of course the overwhelmingly negative response from 2-3 high profile sites will have a chilling effect on others' takes on the album.

 

I wasn't online all that much in the summer of 2010, so I didn't really follow that rollout. I followed Reflektor a bit more, but that felt a little less abrasive to me than this. The Stereoyum thing definitely rubbed me the wrong way, and I didn't find it particularly clever.

I don't know how many ways I can say that I think this album is legitimately bad, divorced from all that. I didn't go in wanting to dislike it because I read a negative review on Pitchfork. I downloaded it the morning after it leaked, before most of those reviews went live, and struggled to get through it. I think the songs are mostly poorly written, tuneless dreck with no emotional payoff, from a band that used to do melody and emotional payoff very well. I think it's bizarre that so many people in this thread are ascribing ulterior motivations or subconscious factors to the response I/others are having to this album.

 

Anyway, I'm going to go ahead and bow out of this thread. I've reiterated and defended my viewpoint enough times and we're just going in circles. I'd rather leave the thread to the people who like the album to discuss things other than the critical reception.

 

Haha, Sam's Town is juuust before my time of really getting into music, and of course that's one of my absolute all-time favorites, while this is definitely not... but yes, I agree completely. I'd say the only difference is that the Killers and Hot Fuss weren't necessarily getting critical praise beforehand. Of course that album and its singles were everywhere in 2004-2005, and I may be misremembering, but many of their positive reviews to that point were with a certain sense of irony, and a cool detachment. So when Brandon Flowers started running his mouth about Sam's Town, that backlash to me seemed more to the tune of critics wanting to put him in his place and shut him up, where as here feels like a communal attempt at dethroning after an already well-celebrated legacy.

I'll just have to agree to disagree with you a bit on that second part. Though I agree with your take on the theme as well, I think the first half of the record actually does a great job of establishing that. For example, I think it would be easy to dismiss "Everything Now" as that kind of removed condemnation, but then that line "Every inch of road's got a town/
Daddy, how come you're never around? /I miss you, like everything now" just brings it all home for me. Same with that "It's not painless/She was a friend of mine" moment in "Creature Comfort". I don't think either song necessarily hit you over the head with bleeding hearts, but I also think that's necessary for the rest of the record: they convey both an intimacy that is already lost, which develops into a longing for it, in a way that just kind of creeps in. And then like you said, by the end of the record, it's almost entirely at the forefront.

I just think how that search develops thematically over the course of the album is really interesting, but it's definitely not done with absolute 100% success, or is it necessarily something that is going to strike every listener. It took several listens for that side of the album to reveal itself, and for me to then enjoy it as an entire piece, rather than just selections from it.

And I actually haven't checked out that Gunderson album yet, somehow, but I've been meaning to. I'll definitely give it a listen tonight!

 

That's perfectly valid, and I'm not questioning your specific response to it. We love a lot of the same music; CRAZY excited for Noah in a month. Got anything else you'd recommend from recent weeks?

 

Oh, it definitely wasn't the same thing with The Killers. Critics weren't huge fans of Hot Fuss either. But they sort of acted like they were when those reviews started flowing in. Like "How dare they change their sound to this?" or "You're good at one thing and it isn't Springsteen-style heartland rock." But there definitely was a "You can't sit with us" mentality there too, in wanted to shut Flowers down for even suggesting he belonged in the top tier.

I think you definitely have a more complete grasp of the lyrical nuances on this record, so maybe you're right. I just felt like there was a judgmental streak running through songs like "Signs of Life," "Infinite Content," and "Creature Comfort." The latter is pretty ambiguous, though. I still can't figure out what the intention behind the part about the fan putting on Funeral is.

Noah's record isn't out until September, unfortunately, but he just premiered a new track from it (and talked a little bit about the themes of the record). Hear Noah Gundersen's Sweeping New Tune 'Bad Desire'

I'm definitely psyched to talk about Noah with people. I've been trying to hold off on listening to that one a ton yet. It seems like such a perfect fall record.

Were you a fan of Sturgill at all? I can't remember, but he just produced an LP for this young guy named Tyler Childers from Kentucky. If you're in the mood for a country record, that one is pretty great. Same for the new Will Hoge record, which comes out tomorrow. That's probably the album I've been spinning most recently, largely because I was working on a feature/interview piece about him this week.

And on the #shamelessplugs side of things, I'm releasing a new record tomorrow that I'd love for you to check out!

 

Yes! And "Windowsill" is the single most underrated AF song.

 

AV Club probably has the best few lines on this

 

This new Noah song is wonderful. Definitely feels like a fall record so far. Thanks!

Sturgill was good, but I liked Stapleton much more... the straightforward songwriting of "Either Way" combined with his voice was a stunning combination. I'll check out Childers and Hoge and your new one tomorrow!

 

Oh yeah, "Either Way" is really something else. But you'd probably like Childers, especially the song "Universal Sound.

 

Say what you want about this album as whole, but if you don't think "Put You Money On Me" is a perfect song we may have to fight.

Also, seeing them tomorrow at MSG. yay

 

PYMOM is so good. Will be at MSG tomorrow as well. Accidentally double booked with Bayside at Irving Plaza and I can't move the Bayside tickets so I'm gonna have to eat the cost. Rough.

Speaking of eating the cost...

These Arcade Fire tickets, at least where I'm sitting, were $116 each face value. The same seats are going for $80 on StubHub with fees. Lowest tickets are $38.

The same thing happened with Barclays run during Reflektor tour. I paid face for both Friday and Sunday and could have got the same spot for HALF that. I don't know what the solution is, but it's kinda bullshit...

 

That's rough. I bought my GA tickets on Stubhub a few months ago, but was very tempted to wait until day of to see if it dropped from people just trying to get rid of them. I think i paid $125 each back then and they're up to 150-180.

The center stage set up should make for a good view in the seated section tho

 

Yeah, I will have a great view in my 100's seats and don't get me wrong, I am very, very excited for the show. Just stinks that the fans who were online right when they went on sale are going to get hosed in terms of cost.

 

Apparently ticket sales for the tour as a whole are going really poorly

 

Source?

The reason I checked StubHub was because I got an email offering 2 for $55.

 

Okay, nevermind cause I just looked at MSG and yeesh...

 

Can we blame the bad album reviews like Hollywood is blaming bad movie reviews (for bad movies) on a horrible summer ?

 

Chicago...

 

Good lord

 

Holy shit.

 

I would like to see comparisons from whatever their touring "peak" was.