I’m not sure where I stand on pre-release internet leaks. To begin with, you’re listening to rough cuts and not what the artist intends you to hear on the final copy. Part of me is also cynical when you consider the convenient manner in which bands like Radiohead have previously found their latest album leaked to the net, sitting nicely with their promotional push. Right now though, I just feel privileged to get the chance to give something as good as Arcade Fire’s latest album a listen before it is unveiled properly.
‘Neon Bible’ is not set to be released until March but has appeared in it’s entirety over the past couple of days online, sending myspace kids searching Soulseek furiously for copies. It’s been three long years since their last one and judging by how quickly they sold out their small UK tour they haven’t been quickly forgotten by the fans who were knocked out by ‘Funeral’. They appeared from nowhere (well, Canada) and arrived already fully formed on our laps, with lyrics about death and love, with powerful songs backed by strings and choirs. Their liner notes were charmingly printed to resemble a funeral’s programme of events and they unleashed the insanely brilliant ‘Wake Up’. How dare they disappear for three years and not tell anyone?
Everything that was so refreshing and original about ‘Funeral’ is present here again but that’s with clear evolution as opposed to repeating the same trick twice. The ‘alternative’ instrumentation previously had a tendency to overwhelm the song and appear ‘indier than thou’ but here, even in the organ-drenched Intervention, it is used to positive effect. They have become much more solid songwriters, in that songs seem to go somewhere rather than just meander off like they did in the first one. When Black Waves/Bad Vibrations appears to be heading in that direction, with a shrill vocal line and heavy synths, it is ‘rescued’ back to brilliance by Win Butler’s dominant vocal and a heavy bass line. Aah, they were just keeping us going all along then! Butler’s vocals contrasted with the beautiful backing vocals are one of the key dynamics of Arcade Fire’s sound, and in tracks like Antichrist Television Blues he almost appears to have transformed into Bruce Springsteen. In a good way. In Windowsill he even manages to fit in the obligotary ’state of the nation’ address with lines like ‘World War Three when are you coming for me?’ and ‘I don’t wanna live in America no more’ in deadpan ‘Born to Run’ style. Again, in a good way.
Butler described the sound of this album like ‘looking into the ocean at night’, so it’s just as well that the stand-out track is Ocean of Noise (‘who here still believes in choice, not I). They’ve perfected the trick in this one of making a song start off as a solemn ballad before transforming into an uplifting anthem and the cacophony of noise when the vocals crash against the strings, drums and the choral backing vocals makes this one Neon Bible’s ‘Wake Up’, the track that will be appearing on every new film and TV programme you see for the next few months.
There are some occasions when ‘Neon Bible’ doesn’t quite hit the mark. Having the plodding title track and the lead-off Black Mirror as two of the first three songs regretfully means that Neon Bible takes a little time to get started. While Butler’s vocals on this album are at times perfect for the music, Régine Chassange singing lead on Black Waves/Bad Vibrations is woefully out of place and it takes Butler to cut in half-way to make the song a good one. Minor criticisms though from what is another brilliant outing from Arcade Fire. Just don’t take so long next time.
This week I read on a messageboard for the band Shack that their latest album, On the Corner of Miles and Gil has sold around 20,000 copies to date. Taking into account the three copies I bought for friends and family this Christmas, this is not a lot of record sales for a band that continues to be one of the most underrated in recent music history.
