Arcade Fire: Neon Bible

Arcade Fire
Neon Bible
Merge

The last time a much-ballyhooed, “next wave” indie band followed up a smash debut with a CD of Bruce Springsteen teat-suckling, it was The Killers, and nobody cared. Upon listening to the Arcade Fire’s greatly anticipated Neon Bible, however, it would appear that even the Québécois saviors of art-rock have suddenly found sweet inspiration from the bosom of The Boss.

Having established themselves with a critically worshipped 2004 album called Funeral, it only makes sense that the Arcade Fire would go in a biblical direction to ensure their metaphorical rebirth. Whereas Funeral blended the archetypal coolness of the Velvet Underground, Talking Heads and Joy Division, however, Neon Bible relocates its source material from CBGB to Giants Stadium, with an irony-lacking onslaught of cinematic, Springsteenian anthems about faith, rebellion, and war. Stranger still, it doesn’t suck in the slightest.

From the spirited “Keep the Car Running” to the roaring piano ballad “Ocean of Noise,” frontman Win Butler borrows his inflections from the book of Bruce—but with just the appropriate dash of Robert Smith to keep him in balance with the overriding melancholia of the mini-orchestra behind him. “Intervention,” the bombastic but brilliant single, features a string section and a big honkin’ pipe organ— resulting in something of a gothic “Thunder Road.”

I can taste the fear, Butler yelps. Lift me up and take me out of here! Apparently, you don’t need a headband to be melodramatic-- and you don’t need to hold back to hold court. Très bien.

(Andrew Clayman)


Published in The Metro Pulse, March 2007