In Stores Now: The Suburbs by Arcade Fire

Cover illustration of John Bull magazine, November 6, 1954

Have you heard that there's a new album from Arcade Fire? It's only the #1 RECORD IN AMERICA THIS WEEK! I'm pretty psyched about this for reasons that may be obvious if you've been following Wires and Waves for a while - I've been on a big Merge Records kick this year. I read The Story of Merge Records this year, and I've been collecting various releases from the label's back catalog as well as purchasing their various new releases. Merge is easily my favorite label these days, and so I'm ecstatic to see them release an album that shot straight to the top of the pop charts. So I'm easily predisposed to give The Suburbs a free pass, but it also helps that I'm a fan of the band.

Arcade Fire has followed the baroque assault of Funeral and the dark bombast of Neon Bible with an ambling marathon of an album that is easily their longest to date (sixteen tracks that run over an hour). For this reason, The Suburbs doesn't have the immediate impact of its predecessors, although I definitely think it's a stronger release overall than Neon Bible. It doesn't help that the sprawling Suburbs takes a while to get some real momentum going. The album starts with three midtempo numbers that, to date, have not made much of an impact on me - the second track, "Ready to Start", is the best of the three and would be a standout track if not sandwiched between two songs that do the same thing but not as well. After this weak start, though, the album picks up with a string of seven excellent songs that rival anything the band has done. This run peaks with the two-part "suite" of "Half Light I" and "Half Light II (No Celebration)" - these two connected songs deliver on the ambition and promise of The Suburbs.

The album's last third is a deflating downhill slide, with the exception of the towering "The Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)", my favorite track on the record. It's an easy song for me to like because it sounds like ABBA circa Super Trouper/The Visitors, and it has a bouncing disco sound that plays at the fringes of the album's established palette and gives the record one last "hurrah". I'm usually a "more is better" guy, but I honestly think I'd like The Suburbs better if it was a couple tracks shorter. There's been a lot of talk about the sophomoric lyrics of The Suburbs, but they don't bother me - I see them as a decent allegorical hybrid of the youthful exploration of Funeral and the overpowering politics of Neon Bible. The album is a mixed bag, but it's the number one album in America, and who am I to argue with the pop charts? The kids have spoken.

"The Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)" by Arcade Fire