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Arcade Fire announce new album Everything Now, out July 28, titular single out now

NateDog

Member
Sounds great. This is a great summer for music. London Grammar and Lorde records the next 2 weeks, then Lana Del Rey's and Arcade Fire's next month, then Haim's.
 

jstevenson

Sailor Stevenson
this is some high quality shit.

It's amazing how Arcade Fire has sort of started taking on a lot of the mantle that the Talking Heads / David Bowie carried, but for this generation
 

MrS

Banned
Can't be any worse than Reflektor, can guarantee that it won't be as good as Neon Bible.
 

Pedrito

Member
I'd agree that in hindsight, Reflektor is the weakest album. But it has Afterlife, which is still part of my regular playlist 4 years later.
 

MrS

Banned
Arcade Fire = The Suburbs > Neon Bible > Reflektor

I bet that gives you Antichrist Television Blues(or something)
'Arcade Fire' - Do you mean Funeral? Do you need me to tell you any more album names, World's Biggest Arcade Fire Fan?

In fairness, I loved Funeral and liked The Suburbs but Neon Bible is transcendent.
 
I love Reflektor, but it is heavily weighted down by a lot of bloat. Both in songs that really didn't need to be on the album, and lengthy tracks that don't earn their runtime. Has a few of my all-time favorites, though (Reflektor, We Exist, Normal Person). Suburbs has the same problems, but doesn't hit the same highs IMO.

Neon Bible is probably their tightest overall album.
 

sasliquid

Member
I love Reflektor, but it is heavily weighted down by a lot of bloat. Both in songs that really didn't need to be on the album, and lengthy tracks that don't earn their runtime. Has a few of my all-time favorites, though (Reflektor, We Exist, Normal Person). Suburbs has the same problems, but doesn't hit the same highs IMO.

Neon Bible is probably their tightest overall album.

I generally agree with this. Except Funeral is their tightest and just best.

Funeral > Reflektor > Suburbs > Neon Bible

Seeing them for the fourth time in July. Much hype
 

jstevenson

Sailor Stevenson
all you Neon Bible apologists.

Funeral > Suburbs > Reflektor > Neon Bible > Us Kids Know EP


Funeral is a perfect album, and Suburbs is nearly perfect.

Reflektor might hit those heights if you pushed it down to a one disc album of the best songs. Some of that (Flashbulb Eyes, You Already Know, Joan of Arc) - could be jettisoned and you'd have a super tight album left. Reflektor, Here Comes the Night Time, Normal Person, We Exist, Awful Sound, It's Never Over, Porno, Afterlife, and SuperSymmetry would've been super tight 9 song album.

Neon Bible gets too much hate, it's still great, but it's not their best. That said, ATB, Keep the Car Running, the oft-forgotten but awesome Windowsill, plenty of great tracks there too, and I get why some people rank it highly --- though to me NCG is still an EP song.
 
'Arcade Fire' - Do you mean Funeral? Do you need me to tell you any more album names, World's Biggest Arcade Fire Fan?

In fairness, I loved Funeral and liked The Suburbs but Neon Bible is transcendent.
PS: not their biggest fan. They lost me with Reflektor.

To while away the days before the album releases, what are everyone's ten favorite Arcade Fire tracks? I'll start:

Rebellion
Un Annee Sans Lumiere
The Sprawl II
Antichrist Television Blues
Keep the Car Running
Tunnels
We Exist
No Cars Go
Month of May
Wake Up
 

MrS

Banned
To while away the days before the album releases, what are everyone's ten favorite Arcade Fire tracks?
Good idea!

My Heart Is An Apple
In The Backseat
Crown of Love
Neon Bible
(Antichrist Television Blues)
Black Mirror
My Body Is A Cage
Month of May
Ready To Start
Empty Room
 

Staccat0

Fail out bailed
like this well enough. fantastic bass line, strings are nice and the flute sample is too.

still not really about Arcade Fire being a like, message band. they're not very good at it at all. but if it sounds nice and isn't an overlong mess like Reflektor then that's fine
Funeral is their best album though.
 

overcast

Member
Not feeling this. Reflektor was a much better lead single even if the album was bloated and weighed down some bad tracks.
 

Neifirst

Member
Psyched to see them for the third time in September!

Personal faves:
We Used to Wait
Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
Afterlife
We Exist
Modern Man
Rebellion (Lies)
Crown of Love
Intervention
The Well and the Lighthouse
Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)
 

jstevenson

Sailor Stevenson
PS: not their biggest fan. They lost me with Reflektor.

To while away the days before the album releases, what are everyone's ten favorite Arcade Fire tracks? I'll start:

p

That's nearly impossible but:

Tunnels
Rebellion
Wake Up
Power Out
No Cars Go
Afterlife
Ready to Start
Month of May
Normal Person
Laika


Honorable mentions to Suburban War, (Antichrist Television Blues), Haiti, Here Comes the Night Time, Keep the Car Running, Windowsill, The Suburbs, Modern Man, Sprawl II, Vampire Forest Fire, Intervention, We Exist, It's Never Over.
 

sasliquid

Member
No cars go
Neighbourhoods 1 (Tunnels)
Neighbourhoods 3 (Power Out)
Wake Up
Rebellion (Lies)
The Suburbs
Ready to Start
Sprawl II (Mountains)
Reflektor
Normal Person
 

Pedrito

Member
Suburban War (so underated)
Afterlife
Antichrist Television Blues
Intervention
Modern Man
Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
Neighborhood #2 (Laika)
Ocean of noise
Rebellion (Lies)
Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)
 

sphagnum

Banned
To while away the days before the album releases, what are everyone's ten favorite Arcade Fire tracks?

Cars and Telephones
Wake Up
Keep the Car Running
The Well and the Lighthouse
Antichrist Television Blues
No Cars Go (Neon Bible version)
Mountains Beyond Mountains
Lenin
Awful Sound
Supersymmetry
 

concept_612TX

Neo Member
Can't wait! I still have to buy reflektor... I like it but I agree is bloated.

I didn't like to much this new song but I'm optimistic about the new album.

My favorites, no order:

Tunnels
Antichrist Television Blues
Sprawl II
Afterlife
Rebellion Lies
Laika
Ocean of noise
Reflektor
Half light I
My Body is a Cage

Funeral > Suburbs/Neon Bible > Reflektor
 
No love for "Headlights Look Like Diamonds". Sad. I dl'd a version a number of years ago where Regine is basically shouting/screaming out the end with emotion that really moves me when I'm driving.
 

jstevenson

Sailor Stevenson
No love for "Headlights Look Like Diamonds". Sad. I dl'd a version a number of years ago where Regine is basically shouting/screaming out the end with emotion that really moves me when I'm driving.

oh shit, see that's why it's so hard, Headlights should certainly go up there. They have way more than 10 god tier songs.

I did get it live finally a couple years ago at the Reflektors show in Hollywood, and Win fucked it up and missed the whole second verse.

They've only played it once since and only 3 times in the last 9 years.

if you're an Arcade Fire fan who didn't see them before Neon Bible (aka, you hadn't seen them live before 12 years ago) - there's only been 18 times they've played it. 15 on the Neon Bible tour, and 3 on the Reflektor tour. It's all but buried
 

sphagnum

Banned
No love for "Headlights Look Like Diamonds". Sad. I dl'd a version a number of years ago where Regine is basically shouting/screaming out the end with emotion that really moves me when I'm driving.

It's actually the song that made the band click for me, but Cars and Telephones beats it out as an early song to fit in the top 10 for me.
 

Cmagus

Member
Great single, can't wait for the album. I need to see these guys live again they put on an incredible show.
 
Neon Bible > Your favourite Arcade Fire album

Neon Bible doesn't even get credit for No Cars Go smh.

Best Arcade Fire songs:
Tunnels
Half Light I
Rebellion (Lies)
No Cars Go
Suburban War
Sprawl II
Wake Up
Afterlife
Intervention

Don't at me
 

big ander

Member
funeral>neon bible>suburbs=self-titled EP>>>>>reflektor
No Cars Go, Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels), Sprawl II, Rebellion (Lies), Keep the Car Running, We Used to Wait, Neighborhood #3 (Power Out), I'm Sleeping in a Submarine, In the Backseat, Wake Up
Funeral is their best album though.

see, I don't think of Funeral as a message album. it all orbits around death and leaving childhood and family but it's never preaching about the ills of the world today, in my mind. whereas Reflektor (and potentially Everything Now) is this inflated treatise on How We Live Now In The Age Of Like Technology And Stuff, Do U Ever Think About How Screens Are Everywhere.
And now that I think of it I was wrong to say I don't like them as a message band, because I think Neon Bible is fantastic (and it still amazes me that ten years later some fans still think it's bad). Certainly there they have a message and are bombastic about it, but I think the message is more flexible and artfully constructed. Rather than the band simply moralizing about how "television's bad, ok" they give the album an all-encompassing end-of-the-world feeling—oceans rising, there's nowhere to run to and no vehicle to run away in, you're not even save inside your own body, etc. It's well-rounded, invigorating/terrifying, and most importantly the music kicks ass.
Reflektor was oppressively sanctimonious to me on a first listen, and while I've softened a bit on it I remain in the camp that thinks it overreaching. there's no perceptive angle on "the reflective age," it's too muddled, and the pivot into full-on dance rock didn't work for me. (and it should've because there was already so much New Order influence on all their previous material.) "Everything Now" sounds like an improvement there; it's a full-on glittery disco track.
 
Disappointed that their live tour is skipping Portland YET AGAIN - but I'll probably make the trip out to Seattle for this. I also optimistically predicted that they would co-headline a tour with LCD Soundsystem (since the albums should be releasing around the same time), and it looks like those dreams are dead.

But still - holy shit. New Arcade Fire, new LCD Soundsystem, new Bleachers, new Muse ... - it's one hell of a good summer.
 
What are the versions of No Cars Go? I'm pretty sure there's another version than the one on Spotify which I vastly prefer
 

jstevenson

Sailor Stevenson
Disappointed that their live tour is skipping Portland YET AGAIN - but I'll probably make the trip out to Seattle for this. I also optimistically predicted that they would co-headline a tour with LCD Soundsystem (since the albums should be releasing around the same time), and it looks like those dreams are dead.

But still - holy shit. New Arcade Fire, new LCD Soundsystem, new Bleachers, new Muse ... - it's one hell of a good summer.

LCD Soundsystem isn't nearly big enough to co-headline with AF. AF is full-on arena (some 360 arena shows).

I don't think LCD will be playing arenas when they finally get off the festival circuits. Not even close.

Their final concert / death / resurrection / long layoff somehow got them up to festival headliner status, but they don't carry the arena weight AF does.

And they're just a little too big to open for them - though I did see that, back on the Neon Bible Tour. LCD opened for AF on a bunch of dates, was 5th row at the Hollywood Bowl for that show.

What are the versions of No Cars Go? I'm pretty sure there's another version than the one on Spotify which I vastly prefer

There's the Us Kids Know EP version which is the original, and then the re-record on Neon Bible.

They are both great in different ways.
 
Like the song, love the panpipes.

Sure it's not my favourite work they've ever done but there's something kinda great about Arcade Fire slowly morphing into just making ABBA songs.

Objective ten best AF songs:
- Tunnels
- Laika
- Power Out
- Rebellion
- Keep the Car Running
- The Suburbs
- Deep Blue
- Sprawl II
- Reflektor
- Afterlife
Honourable mentions to Crown of Love, Empty Room, It's Never Over
 
LCD Soundsystem isn't nearly big enough to co-headline with AF. AF is full-on arena (some 360 arena shows).

I don't think LCD will be playing arenas when they finally get off the festival circuits. Not even close.

Their final concert / death / resurrection / long layoff somehow got them up to festival headliner status, but they don't carry the arena weight AF does.

And they're just a little too big to open for them - though I did see that, back on the Neon Bible Tour. LCD opened for AF on a bunch of dates, was 5th row at the Hollywood Bowl for that show.



There's the Us Kids Know EP version which is the original, and then the re-record on Neon Bible.

They are both great in different ways.
I think co-headlining would've been the right solution. As Murphy has said since the reunion, he isn't quite sure how the band fits into the typical touring structure. They're too big for most theaters/ballrooms, but can't sell arenas nationwide. A joint tour with AF would've gotten them into the arenas, and would functionally be no different than being an opening act with a feature-length set. The stage setup they had at Sasquatch was pretty basic (
light visualizer in the back, camera setup that cut in real time with the music, big ass disco ball
), and would mesh fine with an AF touring setup. There's also enough audience overlap that it wouldn't feel as stilted as a traditional opener.

But I get why it wouldn't quite work. I wonder if the better strategy for LCD is to do longer residencies at mid-size venues.
 

jstevenson

Sailor Stevenson
But I get why it wouldn't quite work. I wonder if the better strategy for LCD is to do longer residencies at mid-size venues.

$$$$ is the big reason.

LCD needs it's own full ticket share.

LCD doesn't help AF sell out arenas, AF can do that with normal openers. Prices might go up, but that's dangerous to do when you're trying to sell as many tickets (very curious to see what Arcade will be charging this tour... I have a feeling it'll be sticker-shock-y)

but yeah, I see where LCD is in a weird position, like, I don;'t think they could play an Arena show in LA. Hollywood Bowl maybe.

In the rest of the country that isn't a huge city, 5-7k feels right, but that's a weird venue size.
 
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