Arcade Fire

[Porcelina]

Neon Bible: Keep the Car Running, Antichrist Television Blues, No Cars Go, My Body Is A Cage

The Suburbs: Ready to Start, Half Light II, Suburban War, Empty Room

[Yesiamaduck]

and i wouldn't say Reflektor is more 'professional' (weird way to put it), just more cleanly produced, whereas Funeral seemed to have a bit of an 'edge' to it, with a lot more clattering instruments etc (which i much, much preferred, and was devastated when i first heard Neon Bible and realised how streamlined the sound was on it)

Yeah I think 'Neon Bible' SOUNDS terrible, it's really horribly mastered and just souds overbearingly loud for the most part. The dynamics are squeezed out of the band and it just sounds like a monotonous swell of instruments over and over again... where as with Funeral the bombast was met with the sombre and it made for a much more interesting journey through out the album, it kept my undivided attention, something Neon Bible failed miserably at. I'm pretty sure the production alone makes 'Neon Bible' the weakest Arcade Fire album but having said that I think the songwriting wasn't as interesting either bar a few stand out moments (which were blunted by the production). I revisted 'Reflektor' & 'Subburbs' recently... Reflektor I like considerably more than I did before. But considering I didn't like it all when it first landed in my CD player means I just like the album, it's pretty good but lacks the punch and edge of 'Funeral' or the punchy songwriting of 'The Subburbs' and as a result some of the songs drag. 'The Subburbs' on the other hand stands up much better than I recall, it's still not perfect like 'Funeral', but I'm relieved to revisit it and actually come out enjoying it a decent amount.

Listened to Neon Bible this weekend as well and still cannot physically make it through that album in 1 listen or 2 even... in fact I don't remember the last time I've finished that album at all... it just doesn't sound good even without the aid of some lack luster songwriting. That being said from what I remember the then 'new' songs at Reading 2007 sounded much better than their recorded counterparts.

I will give 'Reflektor' more listens to see if it'll grow on me further, after all it's already proven it's self to be a bit of a grower, and the recent Glastonbury announcement has added fire to my desire to actually mine as much enjoyment out of the album as physically possible. But having said that I fear if they do end up clashing with Pixies they'll still play second fiddle in my mind as Pixies... at least to me... have never released an album short of being 'very good' with their weakest album (Bossonova) still holding lots of appeal to me

Edited December 24, 2013 by Yesiamaduck

[dentalplan]

Can you not just listen to the album instead of particular songs? Listening to the LP and finding what songs you like is pretty much the point of the release.

[slamdunkdafunk]

Hmmm, while I've maintained throughout all the rumoring and the confirmation that I'm not interested, a friend of mine who is normally an exceptional judge of things, said that he had a free ticket to see them a couple of years back, he wasn't interested in them at the time, but said that they were amazing and that I would be a fool not to go.

Decisions decisions.

[Porcelina]

Looks like I'm going to be seeing them on March 17th In Philly as well! So will be excitedly reporting back.

The joys of holidays and gig schedules lining up.

[LondonTom]

It's a bit too happy-clappy euphoric for me. Like some kind of church service.

I get what your saying....I think that's what I like them, it is almost like a religious experience with them.

Yeah willutalk, why don't you just listen to the albums. They all really work really well as albums rather than a "collection" of songs that you get most of the time now.

But if you must,

Neon Bible: No Cars Go, Neon Bible, My Body is a Cage, Black Mirror

The Suburbs: Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains), Month of May, Ready to Start, City with no Children and Half Light II (No Celebration).

[fightoffyour]

No Cars Go is from 'Us Kids Know' though, before Neon Bible and Funeral

[addicted2noise]

I've been listening to their stuff since they were announced and still think Funeral is their best work. Neon Bible and The Suburbs both have a lot of good songs but I think they're more like decent indie albums and they lost a bit of the magic which made Funeral so incredible. Also I think they band worked best when Wins vocal were not so high in the mix and the rest of the band members like the strings were more prominent, saying that the new album has grown on me and I think the second half run of songs is the best thing they've done since their debut.

[CHRLY]

Listened to the suburbs last night for the first time since reflektor came out, actually forgot how great that ablum is! Gunna be sad to see certain songs leave the set

[willutalk]

Thanks for the replies guys! I agree with LondonTom as the old fashioned way of listening to an LP as a whole rather than a collection of songs is better.

Arcade Fire have really grown on me in the last few days. Anyone not sure if they are fit to headline needs to think twice. As I thought they were Other headliners and nothing more, now I'm starting to think they'll round off the the Friday on the Pyramid really well.

Edited December 24, 2013 by willutalk

[festhead]

stand out songs on each record for me:

Funeral: Tunnels, Laika, Powerout, Rebellion, Haiti, Wake Up

Neon Bible: Keep the Car Running, No Cars Go, Intervention, Black Mirror, Windowsill

The Suburbs: Ready to Start, Month of May, Suburban War, We used to Wait, Sprawl II, Modern Man

Reflektor: Reflektor, Normal Person, Joan of Arc, Its never Over, Afterlife, We Exist

This is not to say all their songs aren't awesome - Because they are

they are going to be electrifying at Earls Court and Glasto CANNOT WAIT!!!!!!!!

[CHRLY]

My standout songs would be

Funeral: tunnels, laika, power out, wake up, rebellion, in the backseat

Neon bible: keep the car running, intervention, no cars go, black wave, my body is a cage

The suburbs: the suburbs, ready to start, empty room, suburban war, deep blue, we used to wait, sprawl II

Reflektor: reflektor, normal person, Joan of arc, it's never over, afterlife

And also here comes the night time after seeing it live, afterlife is also 1000000x better live than on record

[Andy0808 v3.0]

When they play Glastonbury, I hope the set starts with the Lion King theme music where Win and Regine then proceed to walk onto the stage in a cloudy mist holding up the Arcade Fire baby, the entire field holds up a cup of scrump... Then they get on with it. (And at the END of the set they play Wake up, not the second song like at bloody Hyde Park the other year)

[CHRLY]

(And at the END of the set they play Wake up, not the second song like at bloody Hyde Park the other year)

Think they said they did that so they could see the crowd when they played it. But yeh at glasto they have to play it last, absolutely have to

[Calvin Klein]

They did say they played it early because they wanted to see the crowd.

[Tuna]

Listened to all four LPs in the car the other day. Glad a lot of Suburbs stuff is (presumably) dropped, its definitely my least favourite of theirs. Neon Bible, 6 years later, continues to grow on me. Smashing record, absolutely quality.

[DJL]

Watched the coachella set last night - wow. I've seen them four times but never a full headline set like that, even more excited now. I was thinking the funeral and neon bible stuff sounded the best.

[Paul ™]

Me too, it was awesome

Watched the coachella set last night

[CHRLY]

Watched the coachella set last night - wow. I've seen them four times but never a full headline set like that, even more excited now. I was thinking the funeral and neon bible stuff sounded

the best.

Love how they just open with month of May straight into rebellion, that's some way to start a set

[Spindles]

+1 for listening to their work as albums.

You wouldn't look for stand out pink floyd tracks, but consider each album a body of work that stands on it's own. I remember Lou Reed saying in the sleeve notes to a compilation which included Last great american whale, that it was hard to put a song to the album when he believed that the record should be listened to in the manner of reading a book or watching a film, from start to finish.

[Brave Sir Robin]

Great point made above about the nasty production job on Neon Bible. I'd never quite worked out why the album has never really clicked for me despite having some great songs on it, and that's probably it. Thankfully it won't effect how they'll sound in June.

[dirty_dog]

I've just realized that I haven't even looked on the rumours page for a while so it just occurred to me I'm really not arsed what the rest of the line up is like.

wouldn't mind Black Keys and Hot Chip tho but yep not arsed.

[alframsey]

The songs I would like off each album are below, I know I won't get anywhere near all of them.

Funeral:

• Laika
• Une Annee Sans Lumiere
• Wake Up
• Rebellion

Neon Bible

• Intervention
• Black Wave/Bad Vibrations
• Ocean of Noise
• The Well and The Lighthouse
• My Body is a Cage

The Suburbs

• Modern Man
• City With No Children
• Half Light II
• Suburban War (especially Suburban War)
• We Used To Wait

Reflektor

• Reflektor
• We Exist
• Here Comes The Night Time
• Normal Person
• Awful Sound
• It's Never Over
• Porno
• Afterlife

Edited December 27, 2013 by alframsey

[jackarmy]

^Funeral:

^{Tunnels
Laika
Power Out
Wake Up}

<sup>Rebellion

Neon Bible:</sup>

^{Keep The Car Running
No Cars Go
Intervention}

^{The Suburbs:}

^{The Suburbs
Ready To Start
Month of May
City With No Children
Modern Man
We Used to Wait
Sprawl II}

^Refelktor:

^{Reflektor
Here Comes the Night Time
We Exist
Normal Person
Joan of Arc
Afterlife}

^{21 tracks, seems reasonable.}

[CHRLY]

Dream would be:

FUNERAL

- tunnels

- Laika

- power out

- crown of love

- wake up

- rebellion

- in the backseat

NEON BIBLE

- intervention

- black wave

- no cars go

THE SUBURBS

- ready to start

- suburban war

- we used to wait

- sprawl II

- Month of May

- Deep Blue

REFLEKTOR

- reflektor

- here comes the night time

- Joan of arc

- normal person

- awful sound

- it's never over

- afterlife

This will never happen but I would love it so much, can't see awful sound or laika being played and black wave and deep blue will definitely not, it would be so good though