| 31 July 2010
In its most general sense, a city suburb is an outlying district of a city - away from the hustle of the city center itself, while being close enough for a daily work commute or an occasional nice dinner. It's a place that gets stereotyped as being devoid of its own culture or identity that leans more towards conformity and exclusion than tolerance and diversity. Arcade Fire's third album, aptly titled The Suburbs, is a lot of things: a meditation on growing up in a suburban environment, an expansion of their sound inasmuch as a suburb is an expansion of a city, and a pill that's easy to swallow with just a hint of conformity.The Suburbs, while being the most accessible record in Arcade Fire's library, comes off as being less necessary than their previous two albums. Much of that can be attributed to the fact that the first two albums were thematic heavy-hitters; really, how do you follow up albums that delve into the subjects of death and religion? It carries the same seriousness as the previous albums - it just doesn't evoke as much emotion as its predecessors (which may be my fault, since I didn't grow up in a city suburb). The Suburbs starts out the same as the first two Arcade Fire albums - a harrowing, anthemic first track, a mid-tempo jostler, and a hushed and introspective third track - but its SIXTEEN tracks and 64-minute runtime also encourage chopped-up listening sessions that lead the listener away from thinking of this record as an "album" and more like a collection of songs.
My biggest beef with this album is its sonic footprint. I feel that the whole album suffers from too much compression, and the songs' quiet/loud dynamics are drowned out by a smothering normalization. The drums and bass seldom stand out, and the definitely-real strings sound like they're being run through a keyboard. Although this album boasts the most diverse instrumentation Arcade Fire has ever used, you can barely tell because everything meshes together a little too well. Win Butler's vocals are mixed too far in the front, and while it adds a sense of intimacy to his endearingly-direct lyrics, I was always impressed with the detached majesty of Butler's vocal presence in their first two albums - which was at many points thanks to a deft vocal mix.
When it comes down to it, I'm happy that Arcade Fire was able to pull off a solid trifecta of debut albums, something rarely seen in the music world today. But ultimately this is my third-favorite Arcade Fire album; it tries to make up for the creativity and freshness of Funeral (whose very song verses were fist-pumping choruses in and of themselves) and the expertly-crafted dynamics and unrelenting heaviness of Neon Bible by assaulting the listener with sheer volume and diversity. It falls into the same category as Radiohead's Hail to the Thief and Spoon's latest, Transference, as being an album that I love equally for the fact that it's from a band whose sound is comforting to me and the for the fact that I don't have to get out of my comfort zone to appreciate it.
Bottom line: If you're a fan, you'll love it. It's also a pretty good introduction to the band and a gateway drug to Arcade Fire's two previous (and superior) albums.
Best song: "Ready to Start" (found below)
Worst song: "Sprawl (Flatland)"
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