The Tunes

A musically inclined friend once told me that when an album tells a story, it's called a concept album. Songs relate to each other and characters are mentioned multiple times. Even the music is intended to show passing of time and emotions. It's not something bands do, or should for that matter, on their debut albums but this is Arcade Fire's 3rd and It feels right at home. Now a couple personal notes that affect my review, consider this a disclaimer. I rarely listen to entire albums. I usually find myself craving variety about 3 songs in. And 2nd, I have a longstanding aversion to the suburbs. TS by AF may have changed my mind on the first note, and reinforced my 2nd. The album itself is very varied (avoid that word combo in the future). The album opens with a light-hearted intro, the title track, that seems to paint suburb life very well. It introduces us to 2 characters. The narrator and his friend. I'm reminded of Heroin Bob and Steve-O from SLC Punk in a few respects (anarchy not being one of them). They are obviously kids grown up with privilege hoping to run counter to it. The friend being the leader and the singer following. The tone shifts dramatically with Ready To Start, track 2, and the tension of someone trying to be different is palpable. It's stark contrasts like the dissonance between tracks 1 & 2 that made this album exciting to listen to from beginning to end. The body of the album details the youthful rebellion of the characters and the tunes chronicling it are solid. A gear shift happens again at Suburban War. The friend seems to abandon his counter-culture clash and conform. The narrator sings of searching for him, with literally or for the old attitude I'm not sure but this is my 2nd favorite track. It's the one that made me buy the album. Now, my favorite song is not about the 2 familiar characters. In fact after Suburban War the album seems to take a less concept approach. My favorite song, the one I can put on repeat and listen to all day is The Sprawl pt. 2. With female vocals it's a haunting tribute to the battle against the clock-punching repetitive existence. The singer's voice reminds of some of the powerful female rockers of days gone by like Heart and Blondie. If you like neither make your own comparison. But love or hate the suburbs there's something for you in the album of the same name by Arcade Fire.