Yeah. So this album is at least as good as I'd hoped it would be.
First off, the sound is just HUGE. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the whole thing. I really thought that since I listened to most of the tracks as they leaked one by one that my excitement would be fairly diminished, but I was totally wrong. Totally wrong.
When I first heard Black Mirror way back when, I thought it was a little bit subdued for my taste, but at this point it's one of my favorites on the album. It's got kind of a claustrophobic feel to it in the verses (which highlight the song's theme of introspection) that reminds me a little bit of The Olivia Tremor Control, but they keep trying to burst out of it around the chorus line. "..THE ONLY KIND
THAT I RELATE TO.." Where the Arcade Fire of Funeral would run with that energy, the Arcade Fire of Neon Bible merely acknowledges that it's there, and in a way that almost toys with you, immediately returns to subtlety. This song is the introduction to the new Arcade Fire.
Keep the Car Running invokes somewhat of an apocolyptic feel to it (listen for the obvious Rapture references), and sounds absolutely joyous compared to some of the songs later in the album. It serves as a great contrast to the more vitriolic take on modern religion that is present in other songs (hell, even the very next song). Fantastic.
The title track is much shorter than the rest of the songs (at around two minutes), and my only real complaint with it is in fact its length. It's got a wearily foreboding feel to it. It has the protagonist analyzing modern religion and his involvement in it. And well, these lyrics just make me
:
Oh God well look at you now
Well you lost him but you don't know how
In the light of a golden calf
Oh God I had to laugh
Take the poison of your age
To lick your fingers when you turn the page
It was wrong but you said it was right
In the future I won't read at night in the
Neon Bible
Intervention. What a transformation you've gone through since I heard you in that radio session performance so long ago. Much more fully realized and orchestrated. Very anthemic. One of my favorites, in all likelihood. In this one, the protagonist looks at his current situation and at first considers attempting to fix a corrupt modern religious institution ("who's gonna reset the bone?"), but eventually decides that, realistically, "the bone shall never heal" and decides that "we'll go at it alone." A very emotional song on Win's part which leads into the fear and outright paranoia of...
Black Wave/Bad Vibrations. This song is extremely interesting because of it's two distinct parts. The first part has the narrator wishing to escape into "the sea," with the second part having the revelation that they would be no better off in the sea and that there really is no escape from corruption in the real world ("Nothing lasts forever that's the way it’s gotta be, there's a great black wave in the middle of the sea for me,"). In addition, the dichotomy of the two parts along with the brilliant backing vocals near the end of the second part give me chills. CHILLS, I tell you.
Ocean of Noise continues the "ocean" imagery and finds the narrator trying to cope with his partner in the midst of the "ocean of violence" that is the reality of the modern world. I'm not entirely sure what it's about beyond that, but all I know is that it may be the most beautiful song on the album. A definite grower. The delivery of the lyrics as well as the instrumentation at the end
makes this song.
No way of knowing
What any men will do
An ocean of violence
Between me and you
You've got your reasons
And me, I've got mine
But all the reasons I gave
Were just lies
To buy
Myself some time
The Well And The Lighthouse. To be honest, I don't really know what this song's about. From what I can tell, it starts out with the narrator more or less rejecting religion altogether, despite desperately wanting to believe ("Heaven is only in my head," "My prayers are said, only the moon was shining back," "If I seemed lost, when I weighed the cost, and chose my crime, now it's mine all mine,"). Not really sure where it goes after that. However, despite my confusion regarding the lyrics, it's still probably one of the best songs on the album in my opinion.
(Antichrist Television Blues) is probably my favorite song on the album.
Scathing sarcasm in this song. Absolutely scathing. What originally sounds like a typical "working hard to get my minumim wage" song ends up as anything but. To give you a little more perspective, one of the running titles for the song was "Joe Simpson" (aka Jessica's/Ashley's dad), so take that as you will. The part where Regine freaks out is a highlight of the album for me. Oh, and WHAT AN ENDING. I'm left completely breathless after this song finishes. Brilliant in every sense of the word.
Windowsill is much more of a subdued song than ATB. It's a really good song that has a nice climax toward the end. I can't make much out of the lyrics besides a general discontent with the world and a feeling of impending doom, so hopefully someone can shed some more light on it. At first I thought it was about global warming going by the chorus, but I kind of doubt that at this point.
Cool song, though.
No Cars Go is everything that the EP version was, except better in every possible aspect. A definite highpoint of the album, but I'm still finding it kind of hard to accept it as part of the new album, since I've been listening to the EP version for so long. I like all of the adjustments, and especially love the little...fluttery...sounding...thing in the background. My knowledge of obscure instruments is fairly limited, so I have no idea what it is, but I like it. It may be a hurdy gurdy, since I've heard that was on the album, but yet again have no idea what it is. I'll just go with that then.
Anyway, what a joyous song about what I assume is the desire to escape from a cruel reality. "Don't know where we're going.." Fantastic.
And finally, My Body Is a Cage. Just wow. There's not much I can even say about this one. It's certainly Win's "In The Backseat" to some degree - a very personal song that at least starts out as very stripped down and simple. And oh my God, when that organ comes in. The single most powerful moment on the album. The lyrics continue the theme of NCG, and suggest simply wanting to be set free from the physical limitations of life, ending with a pleading "Set my spirit free, set my body free." An exquisite ending to what should most definitely be held as a modern classic. I'm still not sure how to compare it to Funeral, but I'm not exactly sure that it should be compared to Funeral. It's a different sound entirely and it's going for something completely different with the lyrical content. The most I can really say is that it's more than a worthy followup to Funeral, and fans of The Arcade Fire just got another reason why this is one of the greatest bands going right now.
So yeah. I kind of like it.
Canadiens1160 said:
I haven't heard an album seem to go by so quickly and slip away so bittersweetly for such a long time
And I agree with this completely. I always end up feeling this album is far too short, even though in reality it's only a couple minutes shy of Funeral's length.
I'm away form the computer for ONE NIGHT and this is what happens?!
