Arcade Fire 2: Arcade Harder

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GirlsAloudFan

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I saw that the last Suburbs thread was over 1,000.

Please continue discussing the recently released album, the tour, and everything else in between regarding the coolest Houston Astros fans to ever walk the Earth.
 
I was going to quote something from Die Hard 2, but realized Die Hard 2 has nothing worth quoting.
 
From late in the last thread:

Ready To Start is easily my favorite on the record, along with the epic Sprawl II and lilting title track.

Now you're knocking at my door
Saying please come out against the night
But I would rather be alone
Than pretend I feel alright

I would rather be wrong
Than live in the shadows of your song
My mind is open wide
And now I'm ready to start

It's the I Will fucking Survive of Arcade Fire. And it doesn't have to strictly be about relationships either: there's definitely a theme of "fuck the system, I'm going to live my own life and not bend over for this" that could apply to the workplace also. If there's anything I've learned about this band by this point, it's that they're awesome at taking dreary circumstances and overcoming them, to majestic results.

(So many easy Lance's mom jokes in the above paragraph, as is her way.)

Nice post LM, but I can't resist bringing this up because it's one of my favorite lyrical moments on the album.

It's not "Now you're knocking at my door, saying 'Please come out against the night.'" It's "Now you're knocking at my door, saying 'Please come out with us tonight.'"

It's a huge difference, and such a great lyric for me, because it immediately takes me back to being a kid, before cell phones and the internet were in everyone's possession, and friends from the neighborhood would have to go to eachother's parent's houses and knock on the front door and ask if they could come and hang out for the night.

It brings back a lot of good memories and goes a long way, for me, towards evoking the atmosphere and image that the album is going for: growing up a middle class white kid in pre-information era suburban America.

Great album.
 
It's not "Now you're knocking at my door, saying 'Please come out against the night.'" It's "Now you're knocking at my door, saying 'Please come out with us tonight.'"

I liked "against the night" better.

Also, over 1,000 for a non-Shuttlecock band in just over 3 months is pretty impressive.

Of course, how many of those posts were just people LYING about liking this band?
 
Uhhhh, the actual version of the lyrics is better than "please come out against the night." GAF is right; it's a huge difference, one which completely colors that moment.

re: Scumbo wondering why I think "Rococo" sucks. Let me put it this way: how anyone could listen to that "oh my dear god what is that horrible song" portion without being embarrassed for Win Butler and all his principals is beyond me. Nevermind the fact that he's chastising the very "kids" who have made his band an institution, it's just the same boring paranoia which made Neon Bible age so horribly.
 
As for Rococo, it's like Butler first discovered the word and couldn't get over how cool (to him, at least) it sounded. "Hey, what if I repeat it over and over again until it sounds like it doesn't mean anything anymore?"

Or maybe he should have just written new lyrics for McCartney's song and called it Rococo Raccoon, which at least wouldn't have resulted in a boring 4 minutes of music.
 
It's probably the most condescending tune I've ever heard directed at a fan base, and it's way too poorly executed for it to mean much. Despite the fact that the album's theme gets extremely redundant, I can sympathize on how soul crushing growing up in the burbz can sometimes be having done so myself. Yeah, lashing out against those who love you is a rite of becoming an adult, but "Rococo" biting the hand that feeds in such a misguided fashion borders on self-parody. You're better than that, Winnie.
 

Looks like a new strain of flu.


...and the only prescription is...MORE ROCOCO!

celebrities_male_69.jpg
 
The winner:


"John Randolph's Left Leg said...

Let's take a moment to reflect on this very serious moment.

http://arcadefirehighfivedovermymothersgrave.blogspot.com/"
 
This has been the most easily assessible listening AF album in my experience and I don't think its because there is something simple in their sound this time around. There is a lot to digest here. I am hearing a lot of 70s and 80s inspiration in this album. The electro-dance pulses found on Sprawl 2 and Half Light 2 reminds me of Blondie and other classic rock sounds that incorporated a more disco(ish) pop sound with classic rock. This stuff just sounds fantastic to my ears. Really really diggin' it. The only track that I can't get through too well is Rococo. The music, the lyrics, all of it is quite beautiful right up to the point when Win starts repeating "rococo." At that point, it just becomes a little annoying. Other than that, I can't say enough good things about this album. There is 60 minutes of bliss on here for me. I am dying to hear anything that didn't make the cut. I think this was an extremely rich recording period and I need more. :drool: This will end up being my favorite album this year period.
I absolutely love the muscle in Month of May. Empty Room and City With No Children is really one fantastic song to me. Half Light 2 and Sprawl 2 are probably tops for me.
 
The winner:


"John Randolph's Left Leg said...

Let's take a moment to reflect on this very serious moment.

http://arcadefirehighfivedovermymothersgrave.blogspot.com/"

:lol:

I also enjoyed:

"cold4thestreets said...

What's the big deal? I stole Win Butler's album off the internet."
 
Re: "Rococo", I just have a hard time believing it's aimed directly at their fan base. I haven't looked up the lyrics, so if I'm wrong, please tell me. It just seems to go along with the theme of the album, pretentious rich kids from the suburbs acting like some things are just so incredibly important and precious, using words to describe these things that they don't even know what the definitions of really mean. As it happens, that also describes SOME members of the fan base, and to a greater degree, the indie film/music fanbase in general, so I think it was an unfortunate decision on the band's part, but I don't think it was their intention. Then again...
 
Re: "Rococo", I just have a hard time believing it's aimed directly at their fan base. I haven't looked up the lyrics, so if I'm wrong, please tell me. It just seems to go along with the theme of the album, pretentious rich kids from the suburbs acting like some things are just so incredibly important and precious, using words to describe these things that they don't even know what the definitions of really mean. As it happens, that also describes SOME members of the fan base, and to a greater degree, the indie film/music fanbase in general, so I think it was an unfortunate decision on the band's part, but I don't think it was their intention. Then again...

My sources told me that it's about Mofo and Shouter, specifically.
 
Re: "Rococo", I just have a hard time believing it's aimed directly at their fan base. I haven't looked up the lyrics, so if I'm wrong, please tell me. It just seems to go along with the theme of the album, pretentious rich kids from the suburbs acting like some things are just so incredibly important and precious, using words to describe these things that they don't even know what the definitions of really mean. As it happens, that also describes SOME members of the fan base, and to a greater degree, the indie film/music fanbase in general, so I think it was an unfortunate decision on the band's part, but I don't think it was their intention. Then again...


I'm inclined to agree with you here.

Here are the lyrics minus the million "Rococo".


Let's go downtown and watch the modern kids
Let's go downtown and talk to the modern kids
They will eat right out of your hand
Using great big words that they don't understand
They say

They build it up just to burn it back down
They build it up just to burn it back down
The wind is blowing all the ashes around
Oh my dear god what is that horrible song they're singing

They seem wild but they are so tame
They seem wild but they are so tame
They're moving towards you with their colors all the same
They want to own you but they don't know what game they're playing
 
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