Arcade Fire "Funeral" 2004*****

I've always thought of Arcade Fire as a cerebral, even too-smart-for-its-own-good, indie group. Something about the way they mesh different styles and decades to create their personal "here and now" sound, with all the multi-instrumentalists in the group betraying a whiff of nerdness about them. I enjoy their albums, so when a friend proposed to go and see their show at Rotterdam's Ahoy I gladly went along, but my expectations from the show were rather low. Boy was I in for a surprise! The nerds were supremely confident onstage in the midst of a production more suited to U2 than to an indie band from Montreal, Canada. Win Butler did his Bono impression while wifey Regine played the resident disco diva, a sort of accordion/ keyboards/ percussion playing Diana Ross. Of course by flashing fake ads for bogus sponsors on the giant screens and the like, they made it clear it's all tongue-in-cheek, that they're real artists only pretending to be pop stars. But they stayed in character throughout the gig, and clearly had fun dressing up, and we had fun in turn watching the show all the while appreciating the irony of it. Anyway, by this point of their career they have the catchy tunes and the showmanship to step over to the mainstream and become the new Coldplay (I remember when they were a low-key indie band). Or they could retreat to the underground like The Flaming Lips, whose concert around the time of Yoshimi made a similar impression to me. The Lips also had the hooks and stagecraft but chose a more alternative route. In any case, it's a good time to see how all this started: with a bold statement under the rather uncommercial title "Funeral".

A lot has been made of the fact that the title was inspired by the loss of family members (grandparents and aunts) during the recording of the album. Reviewers wrote about the effect of "tragedy" on the making of the album, but let's be honest: losing a grandparent in your mid-20's may be a sobering encounter with mortality, but not a life-changing tragedy. In any case, the album starts with a romantic song about young love, "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)". The vocal is dramatic and music lyrical and soaring if somewhat clattered: a dozen musicians playing at once can sometimes be like that, but that's the Arcade Fire trademark: a wall of sound of guitars, strings, keyboards, percussive instruments and horns. Their sound is all of their own, but if I was looking for similarities it'd be with 80's new wave: the early albums of The Waterboys, U2, Echo & The Bunnymen etc. This is more evident on "Neighborhood #2 (Laïka)" which is at once darker and more rhythmic with a great accordion melodic line, as well as on the upbeat "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)", where in retrospect their future fascination with disco is barely audible under a blanket of post-punk noise. The quadrilogy ends with the introspective folk ballad "Neighborhood #4 (7 Kettles)". "Rebellion (Lies)" was the 4th single lifted out the album (after the first 3 "Neighborhood" songs). It is an upbeat tune with a definitively 80's new wave beat, poppy melody and catchy backing vocals. Ostensibly it's about kids refusing to go to sleep early: rebellion begins at toddlerhood, people! "Wake Up" was the 5th and last single off "Funeral". It's, if not the best, at least the biggest song of the record with a huge sing along chorus. Of the rest, "Une année sans lumière" is a beautiful ballad, and "Crown of Love" their idiosyncratic attempt at soul music. Two songs feature Régine Chassagne on lead vocals: "Haiti" is a reference to the tortured homeland of her parents and to the members or her family victimized by the dictatorship of "Papa Doc" Duvalier. Without veering too far from their regular sound, it has a certain exotic touch akin to David Byrnes' and Paul Simon's pop/world music hybrid. Her second lead vocal is "In The Backseat", an epic art-rock ballad reminiscent of Kate Bush or Tori Amos. Not surprisingly, their fresh sound and instrumentation was enthusiastically received by reviewers and ensured that "Funeral" featured prominently on end-of-the-year lists and is still considered one of the decade's best albums. More importantly the album was warmly received by the public which responded not so much to the sonic innovation but to the darkly emotive music and lyrics. They would revive the "Neighborhood" concept for their third, and arguably best, album The Suburbs, the first of three consecutive No.1 albums. Since then they've embraced an increasingly more upbeat, even funky, sound but I'd bet that this melancholic masterpiece will forever have the most dedicated fans.

***** for Neighborhood #2 (Laïka), Wake Up, Haiti, Rebellion (Lies)

**** for Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels), Une année sans lumière, Neighborhood #3 (Power Out), Neighborhood #4 (7 Kettles)

*** for Crown of Love, In the Backseat