HelloAngel
ONE love, blood, life
[SIMG]http://forum.interference.com/gallery/data//585/11265arcadefire-sml.jpg[/SIMG]
By Devlin Smith, Contributing Editor
2006.03
It's completely anthemic in the way it starts out—a slightly distorted guitar leads the way for an innumerable chorus of voices to call out a succession of "ohs." The song is timeless and familiar, a slight throwback to Bowie and something altogether new.
According to Mark Ellen, writer for The Word, it's a trigger for The Edge. "… in fact he can't hear Arcade Fire's 'Wake Up' without the blind panic that he should be onstage in three minutes." It probably elicits the same response from the rest of the band. I know it brings up something similar in me.
The last time I heard it was the last time I saw U2 live, at New York's Madison Square Garden two days before Thanksgiving. I remembered the nudge I gave my friend as the song churned into action, letting her (a U2 virgin) know that the real show was about to begin.
After nearly a year of inescapability, "Wake Up" has disappeared from the airwaves. But this weekend it came back and so did all those pre-concert feelings I'd nearly forgotten. Even though I was at work, I wanted to jump and holler, throw my arms into the air and yell out the "ohs" at full volume. I managed to hold back but it was so hard.
Like Edge, I can no longer separate "Wake Up" from the Vertigo Tour. I can't hear the song without thinking Bono's "everyone" chant is coming and then the band will follow. Just hearing those "ohs" puts me right back in a packed arena with thousands of other fans singing and jumping and yelling, "Oh my God, it's them!"
Everything about "Wake Up" made it the perfect song to usher U2 onstage. Its melding of the old and new, its pessimistic yet hopeful lyrics fit so well with what U2 endeavored and accomplished with "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" and the Vertigo Tour. For me, this was the album where U2 really grew up, where the band took the best and worst parts of being an adult and made it come out just right—not too sad, not too sickly sweet.
On "Wake Up," the members of Arcade Fire seemed to be doing the same thing. Unlike the members of U2, though, the musicians in Arcade Fire have just walked through the grown-up door, like the guys in U2 did with "Boy."
It all tied up beautifully and U2 found a song that not only announced that the party was getting started but let everyone know exactly what kind of party it was. And now I can't hear one without thinking of the other, without yearning for it and wanting to be back in the crowd screaming and begging for more. I don't know if that feeling will ever go away but maybe I don't want it to.
By Devlin Smith, Contributing Editor
2006.03
It's completely anthemic in the way it starts out—a slightly distorted guitar leads the way for an innumerable chorus of voices to call out a succession of "ohs." The song is timeless and familiar, a slight throwback to Bowie and something altogether new.
According to Mark Ellen, writer for The Word, it's a trigger for The Edge. "… in fact he can't hear Arcade Fire's 'Wake Up' without the blind panic that he should be onstage in three minutes." It probably elicits the same response from the rest of the band. I know it brings up something similar in me.
The last time I heard it was the last time I saw U2 live, at New York's Madison Square Garden two days before Thanksgiving. I remembered the nudge I gave my friend as the song churned into action, letting her (a U2 virgin) know that the real show was about to begin.
After nearly a year of inescapability, "Wake Up" has disappeared from the airwaves. But this weekend it came back and so did all those pre-concert feelings I'd nearly forgotten. Even though I was at work, I wanted to jump and holler, throw my arms into the air and yell out the "ohs" at full volume. I managed to hold back but it was so hard.
Like Edge, I can no longer separate "Wake Up" from the Vertigo Tour. I can't hear the song without thinking Bono's "everyone" chant is coming and then the band will follow. Just hearing those "ohs" puts me right back in a packed arena with thousands of other fans singing and jumping and yelling, "Oh my God, it's them!"
Everything about "Wake Up" made it the perfect song to usher U2 onstage. Its melding of the old and new, its pessimistic yet hopeful lyrics fit so well with what U2 endeavored and accomplished with "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" and the Vertigo Tour. For me, this was the album where U2 really grew up, where the band took the best and worst parts of being an adult and made it come out just right—not too sad, not too sickly sweet.
On "Wake Up," the members of Arcade Fire seemed to be doing the same thing. Unlike the members of U2, though, the musicians in Arcade Fire have just walked through the grown-up door, like the guys in U2 did with "Boy."
It all tied up beautifully and U2 found a song that not only announced that the party was getting started but let everyone know exactly what kind of party it was. And now I can't hear one without thinking of the other, without yearning for it and wanting to be back in the crowd screaming and begging for more. I don't know if that feeling will ever go away but maybe I don't want it to.