By shelz.
We spend most of our childhoods yearning for the freedom, independence and late nights of adulthood, and the novelty of being your own chaperon does produce some pleasurable moments initially. Then comes that grand epiphany; the moment when we realize being a grown-up isn’t exactly what we thought it would be and our youth looks a little different in retrospect.
For the lucky few or the less thoughtful, that backwards glance is short and sweet. Moving on with modest resistance from the past makes that entrance into the future easy. For others, whose steely grip on the past is harder to break, the transition from adolescent to adult is a bleak movement into change that they don’t want.
Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs analyzes this march with a melancholic splendor that is both heart-wrenching and exuberant. It is also the perfect step away from the angry manifesto that was Neon Bible.
With three years to conceive and create, the inspired collective obviously made use of the time and even with 16 cuts, there is no filler. Some songs pour into each other, creating an ongoing narrative by maintaining a single idea that’s been halved. The last song mirrors the first. The album holds tight to its concept and traverses it like Byrd at the frame of the Antarctic.
The lead and title track sets the tone, with its bewilderment and grief set to a homey piano that tangles with a cheerless guitar, a weeping synth and Butler’s stoic exclamation that he’s getting over the loss of his formative years better than he should be. “Ready to Start” is an exercise in a more mainstream sound. It gives definite nods to 80’s pop, yet remains modern as Butler examines the fear of standing above the sheep. It’s the first baby step from the shade of the fearful to the blazing sun of being true to yourself. Wonderful.
The Suburbs surveys the idea of feeling out of place in the rank and file of society in “Modern Man.” Its open and sparse construction allows the lyrics to stand front and center. “Rococo” cozies up to misunderstood youth culture while giving a burst of sonic density. Dark and frenzied string structures play background to the “Rococo” coo’s and a guitar that moves from minimal effect to maximum demand.
The band waxes nostalgic on “Half Light 1” about dusk and that magical swatch of time between the flickering on of the street lamp and mom hitting the door to unceremoniously and loudly invite you back into the house before the belt comes out of the closet. The 50’s inspired progression and child-like vocal delivery add to the wistfulness of it all. “Half Light 2” is a darker breed of the same idea, but time has passed. The magic is gone and recapturing that time is impossible. Dusk provides just enough light to note the change for the worse.
Losing connections that once seemed so important is the theme that drives “Suburban War.” The crew appears to take a swipe at their fans in “Month of May,” a punk oriented piece that sounds too much like Wang Chung’s “Fire in the Twilight” in the beginning. “Sprawl” 1 and 2 are the most glum of the tracks; too much so. The dirge-like pieces will take the wind out of your sails. Govern your listening habits accordingly. The close, an orchestral adaptation of the title track is that final look back; the one that makes it okay to look forward. “If I could have it back, all the time we wasted, I’d only waste it again. If I could have it back, I’d love to waste it again and again and again.” It’s moving and for most of us, so very true.
The Suburbs is a poignant, convoluted trip down a memory lane that is quickly becoming hazy with more lure filtering in than truth. Arcade Fire manages this journey with a different set of inspirations than in previous works, but the changes are for the better. Win Butler and crew may not have enjoyed facing all the memories that drove this album and the outcomes may not have been what they wanted, but it was still awesome taking that trip with them.
4.25 Out of 5
Arcade Fire – “Ready To Start”
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