Arcade Fire: Neon Bible - Album Review

The eagerly anticipated second album from Montreal group Arcade Fire is due for release on 5 March. Having stormed the world with their debut album Funeral, this is possibly the most enthusiastically awaited second album of 2007.

They are on a tour in the Europe now until April. They just played in St. Johns Church and Porchester Hall, London and will return to the capital mid-March (I'm fortunate enough to have gotten tickets!)

While comparisons will be made with Funeral, which was my favourite album of 2005 (date of release in UK), that album "crept up on me" rather than instant love. I would suggest quite a few listens before deciding.

The opening track is Black Mirror (first single in the US) which hauntingly inches up on you with it's background wind, simple, repeated guitar strum, violins and piano. And of course Win Butler's wavering sometimes honey-like voice. When I first heard this track, I feared the "second album syndrome" as it didn't seem to offer anything new. Funeral was such an empowering body of work and upon first inspection this didn't live up to that. However, my tenacity has been rewarded. If you liked Funeral and have patience, you'll enjoy it.

Keep the Car Running (their first UK single of the album) starts off upbeat and is the most pop-like of all the album. It's an instantly likable, pop-rock track. Going through the album, it starts to offer what I have come to expect from Arcade Fire - making the unusual sound great, the off-notes sound right and the cacophony a harmony. That's what I came to love.

A new direction is taken with Neon Bible, with a somewhat empty and repetitive bass line with Win's echoing voice singing:
"It's the Neon Bible
The Neon Bible
Not Much chance for survival
If the Neon Bible is right"

It reminds me of Wolf Parades song, Modern World in that it's one simple tune and a deep underlying message about belief and direction.

No Cars Go, also on their Arcade Fire EP is more in line with what fans will be expecting, the blasting synths, accordion, group shouting, violins and fast drums.

Intervention live in Canterbury High School (Ottawa, Canada) January 2007
(best quality sound on video I could find, shame picture is not good)


As I listen through the album it edges closer and closer to me. The second half of the album is definitely more punchy and upbeat. This starts with Black Wave/Bad Vibrations which starts of with Régine singing alternately in English and French with a punchy drum as the main backdrop and then half way through it changes completely with Win laying on the vocals over a totally different and gradually more energetic sound.

From that point on I am sold. With each track getting simply better and better the more I listen.

Liked Funeral? Within time you'll love this.



Track listing:
1. Black Mirror
2. Keep The Car Running
3. Neon Bible
4. Intervention
5. Black Wave / Bad Vibrations
6. Ocean Of Noise
7. The Well And The Lighthouse
8. Building Downtown (Antichrist Television Blues)
9. Windowsill
10. No Cars Go
11. My Body Is a Cage

Arcade Fire website: www.arcadefire.com
Myspace Page: www.myspace.com/arcadefireofficial