Arcade Fire. Formal wear or costumes only please.

[elevated_u2_fan]

Has this been discussed before?

The money pit: How Arcade Fire has spent a decade creating a single music video with director Terry Gilliam | National Post

 

[Kieran McConville]

What would be the point of ever releasing this music video thirteen or fourteen years after the fact? Oh yeah, Romeo, I used to have a thing with him...

 

[iron yuppie]

Who was it who made a remark on this forum a few years ago about the best-to-worst ranking of Arcade Fire albums being the same as their order of release? I personally have a feeling this trend is not going to be broken.

Probably me. This is a band of diminishing returns.

 

[iron yuppie]

They're not getting worse with every album because The Suburbs is way better than the superserious, po-faced Neon Bible.

You can't level that charge at Neon Bible and then ignore the same thing in The Suburbs.

Cops shining their lights
On the reflectors of our bikes
Said "Do you kids know what time it is?"
Well, sir, it's the first time I felt like something's mine
Like I have something to give."

I mean Jesus Christ. And the delivery magnifies the junior-high diary aspect of that line another 100 fold.

 

[lazarus]

Let's not forget that Roccoco is worse than anything on Neon Bible, a career low point.

 

[Roland of Gilead]

My take so far is that every odd numbered album has been a masterful success. I'm optimistic that 3/4 of these new songs so far give fuel to this trend.

 

[gump]

I'm in the chronological order camp. I have enjoyed each succeeding album less.

 

[Pop Artist]

Drip...drip...drip...

Am headed to bed now but will give it the full listen in the morning.

 

[U2DMfan]

Let's not forget that Roccoco is worse than anything on Neon Bible, a career low point.

Judging by the material released thus far that low point might be put to the test.

 

[LemonMelon]

I'm on track 6 and so far I would say everything except the title track (which is awesome) gives Rococo a run for its money. Peter Pan has no substance and is a bunch of shit thrown at the wall; the production is basically this:

Chemistry sounds like the band purposely fucking with us. For a while it goes for this offbeat ska thing, only to turn into The Stroke out of nowhere. It's actually really funny.

 

[LemonMelon]

Aww, the second half is actually really sedate and straightforward compared to the first. That's lame. For a while there I thought they had made a novelty record on PCP but it's just the sequencing that makes it seem that way. About 70% of this sounds like Reflektor b-sides.

The thing is, as clunky and disappointing as Reflektor was after three successful albums, at least it had some potential classics like Reflektor, We Exist, It's Never Over and Afterlife. Some of the material was really good. This shit just sounds underwritten and it doesn't flow well together at all; one half is asinine and terrible and the other half is listenable but not very interesting. There's no buffer between them.

Just for kicks, early ratings for the tracks:

Everything_Now (continued) N/A
Everything Now 8/10
Signs of Life 5.5/10
Creature Comfort 4/10
Peter Pan 3/10
Chemistry 2/10
Infinite Content 6.5/10
Infinite_Content 6/10
Electric Blue 6.5/10
Good God Damn 5.5/10
Put Your Money on Me 6.5/10
We Don’t Deserve Love 7/10
Everything Now (continued) 7/10

 

[gump]

Meanwhile:

Arcade Fire reveal strict dress code for BK show — no shorts, flip flops, crop tops, phones, more

 

[Joey788]

Yeah, this is very stupid.

 

[gump]

Not to mention that walking around in New York these days feels like swimming in fondue. So yeah, ban shorts.

 

[corianderstem]

Are we sure that's real? Because their asinine Twitter posted some fake news story about them working with or supporting extremists or something.

I've been pretty good at ignoring it so far, but they're working REALLY fucking hard to not make anyone want to buy the record.

Also, after last tour's "Geez, you guys don't really have to dress up" response, I'm not holding my breath that this is actually going to be a thing either.

 

[Joey788]

So now it looks like was a fake announcement? I reiterate, this is dumb.

http://www.brooklynvegan.com/arcade-fire-deny-dress-code-for-bk-show-say-wear-whatever-you-want/

 

[BoMac]

You guys are all internalizing. It's a fucking art project, man.

 

[corianderstem]

lol fuck art

 

[Pop Artist]

You guys are all internalizing. It's a fucking art project, man.

Yeah, seriously. I am actually going to the listening part...er. "focus group" tomorrow, hopefully they get creative with that too, lol.

 

[LemonMelon]

@ "phone free viewing experience" being listed like it's something they could charge extra for

Go aaallll the way back to 2004 and experience a time before checking your twitter feed during the opening act was possible!!

 

[david]

The new album sounds like Win has been listening to Sandinista!.

 

[Pop Artist]

So now it looks like was a fake announcement? I reiterate, this is dumb.

Arcade Fire deny dress code for Brooklyn show, say “wear whatever you want”

Maybe not necessarily fake but more like the usual 1iota "casting" mentality rather than the band's doing, in this case.

 

[cobl04]

Pretty savage review from Pitchfork. And I listened to the first four or five songs and have to say I was extremely unimpressed with it. Seems they've completely forgotten how to make good music.

 

[LemonMelon]

You stopped at track 5? It gets worse.

 

[lazarus]

5.6? Ouch.

Keep in mind they gave Reflektor a 9.2.

I'm afraid to check this out.

 

[cobl04]

Reflektor deserves a 9.2

 

[lazarus]

Ehh. That's a little high.

I'd probably put it somewhere in the low 8s. Slightly below The Suburbs, which ain't close to perfect either.

 

[LemonMelon]

Reflektor deserved a 7.5 or so.

A 5.6 is Pitchfork abandoning their boy.

 

[nielsgov]

They seem to be getting a major critical backlash with this album. I hope the critique is overblown but the previously released tracks aren't a good sign.

 

[cobl04]

I found the dropoff from previous work alarming. That Peter Pan song is embarrassing