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Post by Roger Sterling on Oct 29, 2013 11:28:08 GMT -5
Just picked up the vinyl. Flashbulb Eyes is track 2 on Side A, and We Exist is track 1 on Side B, or number 4. Then when I downloaded the mp3 version, We Exist is track 2 and Flashbulb Eyes is 3. Very interesting and curious as to why the switch.
2021 08-07: Japanese Breakfast @ Union Transfer 09-08: My Morning Jacket / Brittany Howard @ The Mann 09-18: Soccer Mommy @ Union Transfer 10-01 thru 10-03: Austin City Limits Music Festival 10-19: Waxahatchee @ Union Transfer 10-27: Arlo Parks @ The Foundry 11-09: Squid @ Johnny Brenda's 11-17: Monophonics @ World Cafe Live 12-01: Caribou @ Union Transfer
Just picked up the vinyl. Flashbulb Eyes is track 2 on Side A, and We Exist is track 1 on Side B, or number 4. Then when I downloaded the mp3 version, We Exist is track 2 and Flashbulb Eyes is 3. Very interesting and curious as to why the switch.
I assume its because the length of the songs would not fit on one side... This album is amazing. I think its already my favourite AF album.
Post by itrainmonkeys on Oct 29, 2013 13:35:22 GMT -5
Sorry if this was already posted. I'm a fan of David Fricke's writing/thoughts on music and saw this on twitter while getting lunch. Reading it now:
"If this is heaven/I need something more," Win Butler and Re?gine Chassagne, Arcade Fire's founding singers, declare in close, almost whispered harmony as the opening title song of their band's extraordinary new album goes into high gear. "Reflektor" is seven and a half busy minutes of art and party. Over a strident-disco hybrid of the Rolling Stones' "Miss You" and Yoko Ono's "Walking on Thin Ice," Arcade Fire and their new co-producer, James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem, throw brittle-fuzz guitar licks, grunting bass, mock-grand piano and ballooning synth chords across deep reverb like frantic instrumental argument. They also find room for David Bowie, one of Arcade Fire's first and biggest fans, who sings with Butler near the end and repurposes the descending vocal flourish from his 1975 hit "Fame."
The way Butler and Chassagne, who are married, sing those lines in "Reflektor" is a sublime moment in the commotion. It is also a perfect summary of their group's still-fervent indie-born hunger after a decade of mainstream success, and specifically, the decisive, indulgent ambition on Reflektor: a two-record, 75-minute set of 13 songs and the best album Arcade Fire have ever made. Founded in 2003, the Montreal-based band – which includes multi-instrumentalists Richard Reed Parry and Butler's brother Will, bassist Tim Kingsbury and drummer Jeremy Gara – has always thought and acted big, using serious echo and drum-circle-like percussion to amplify the emotional mysteries in Win's U2-meets-elliptical-Springsteen writing. Arcade Fire's third album, 2010's The Suburbs, was urgent and clear, a record about dreams and escape, gassed with classic-rock punch. It was a Number One hit and rightly won a Grammy for Album of the Year.
Reflektor is even better, for this reason: the jarring, charging union of Murphy's modern-dance acumen and post-punk sabotage with Arcade Fire's natural gallop and ease with Caribbean rhythm. (Chassagne is of Haitian descent; she and Butler have been active in relief efforts there.) Murphy worked on all but two songs, with most of those tracks near or over six minutes long. The result is an epic made for dancing and sequenced like whiplash. "We Exist" rolls like the pop-leaning late-Eighties Cure, then butts into the paranoid mule-kick reggae of "Flashbulb Eyes." "Here Comes the Night Time" abruptly zigzags between rapid Haitian drumming and a Talking Heads-at-the-beach stroll – as if Murphy and the band can't decide which night they like best – while "You Already Know" is buoyant New Wave Motown, with Chassagne's half of the call-response chorus sparkling in the reverb. That song has to be a single. It ought to be a hit.
Arcade Fire don't play a lot of straight-up heads-down rock & roll. But they are damn good at it. "Normal Person" starts with a joke (the sound-effect chaos of a club band plugging in for a night's work), then sounds like Butler singing in front of the Velvet Underground with a wobbly Little Richard on piano. The opening shock of "Joan of Arc," the last track on the first disc, is hardcore punk. But the blitz quickly drops into meatier surprise: a Gary Glitter-style stomp. The song – a memorial to female strength and sacrifice – surges to an inevitable conclusion: long keyboard sighs and Chassagne singing in French through warping electronics, as if from inside a ring of fire. It is a dynamic, poignant finish, and I doubt anyone would feel cheated or unhappy if Reflektor ended right there.
But the two discs have their own mood swings, the second less manic and more plaintive, even luxuriant at times. The sequence is loosely based on Greek myth – the rapture, violent separation and eventual reunion of the lovers Eurydice, a nymph, and the musician Orpheus (depicted on the album's cover). "Feels like it never ends/ Here comes the night again," Butler sings with an eerie-Neil Young effect in a reprise of "Here Comes the Night Time," before the trouble starts.
There is dance music in this half of Reflektor too: the industrial-funk strut and Bowie- esque vocal glaze of "It's Never Over (Oh Orpheus)"; the "Blue Monday"-prime New Order all over "Afterlife." But this is the push and pull of loss and hope, utter despair and the refusal to quit. "I gotta know/Can we work it out/Scream and shout/Till we work it out," Butler and Chassagne ask each other, in heated unison, in "Afterlife," before Reflektor dissolves into the warm vocal-and-electronic exhale of "Supersymmetry." There is no specific resolution by then. But there is calm, at least for now.
It is tempting to call Reflektor Arcade Fire's answer to the Rolling Stones' 1972 double LP, Exile on Main Street. The similarities (length, churn, all that reverb) make it easy. But Reflektor is closer to turning-point classics such as U2's Achtung Baby and Radiohead's Kid A – a thrilling act of risk and renewal by a band with established commercial appeal and a greater fear of the average, of merely being liked. "If that's what's normal now, I don't want to know," Butler sings in "Normal Person," sounding like a guy for whom even this heaven, next time, won't be enough.
Post by FortSteuben on Oct 29, 2013 14:08:26 GMT -5
IMO These reviews are ridiculous, on both sides of the spectrum. Obviously the guy from the Washington Post has a bone to pick, and the guy from Rolling Stone review is way overselling this album. Can we just call a spade a spade. Its not Kid A, and its not boring yuppie music with bongos. Its a fun dance-able album that should translate well live, and the lyrics if we are going by "Funeral" standards are sub par. That's it. Its a shame that Arcade Fire has gotten to this point where this album has to be their "OK Computer" or its a failure
Post by itrainmonkeys on Oct 29, 2013 14:45:03 GMT -5
Have you read a lot of David Fricke's reviews and heard him talk about music? He seems like a genuine music fan and I could see him just really liking the album.
I find it funny how you dismiss a review because it likes the album too much or because it criticizes the album too much and then you proceed to give us your review and tell us how we should like it lol. So basically the only response that people should have is that it's good.
Have you read a lot of David Fricke's reviews and heard him talk about music? He seems like a genuine music fan and I could see him just really liking the album.
I find it funny how you dismiss a review because it likes the album too much or because it criticizes the album too much and then you proceed to give us your review and tell us how we should like it lol. So basically the only response that people should have is that it's good.
Well let me go through my process with the thread. I saw the Washington Post review, read that and said, "wow that review is really harsh, and its seems very biased, just attacking how much he hates the band and culture, more so than the album itself." I thought, how can you hate a band that much, especially one that is mostly liked across the board. Then I read the Rolling Stone review you posted , and I realized, this is a big part of why he hates the band so much.
Overall yeah I'm a hypocrite. But I do like the album a lot. Just some of the comparisons of the importance of the album in Fricke's review just seem way over the top to me. But if he loves it that much, God bless him, I'm glad he enjoys it.
Just to clarify, I'm not gonna pass judgement on the album till I hear more than a track. It really was just that song. I wasn't a fan of The Suburbs at all, but live those songs made sense to me. Perhaps this is the same, I'd just need to witness it before I found the greatness.
It's better than The Suburbs. That's for certain. I'd place it a solid 3rd.
1. Funeral 2. Neon Bible 3. Reflektor 4. The Suburbs
The show tonight was just one giant dance party, so much fun. Really hoping they hit up the festival circuit this year, although it will be tough to match that club dance vibe in a festival setting.
The show tonight was just one giant dance party, so much fun. Really hoping they hit up the festival circuit this year, although it will be tough to match that club dance vibe in a festival setting.
There's no way we could ever replicate what happened last night. Holy shhhheeeiiiiiiiiettttttt.
Except for a situation outside with some douchebags cutting the line (omg a fight almost broke out!) shortly before doors, last night was perfection. there was a loophole with the security forming the line and a lot of people were taking advantage and sneaking in.
The highlight for me was definitely "Normal Person" and "Here Comes the Nighttime". The energy was so high. cgebert wasn't kidding, it was a huge dance party, everyone was moving. We were dead center like 5th-6th people back. It was crazy. Lots of jumping up and down, lots of screaming, and just great vibes. Usually I have to travel 2000 miles away to Manchester TN to get those vibes.
I remember thinking: "this is like if I was at Bonnaroo, seeing a headlining band on a tent stage, and I'm at the front."
Did I mention that Arcade Fire KILLED it?!?!?!?! The songs from the new album really are great. And the setlist last night was pleasantly different than the other warm up shows in Brooklyn Miami and Montreal. We got a Devo cover and Headlights Look Like Diamonds. Also they played Neighbourhoods 3 (Power Out) in the beginning of the setlist. Took me way off guard and sent chills down my spine. Right before the thundering opening, Win said something to the tune "Let's go! It's Halloween! We're not f-cking around!"
Very excited for the forthcoming world tour. This is gonna be a fun one.
Well, I've given it a few listens, and I'm just not feeling Reflektor. AF seems to have a two album cycle for me: Funeral (Great) -> Neon Bible (Flop) -> The Suburbs (Good) -> Reflektor (Flop)
Post by RxMarky Mark on Nov 1, 2013 12:31:32 GMT -5
Normal Person is my early favorite on side 1. I agree with a few people that its a better version of Month Of May, the pure rock cuts from each album. On side 2 the Awful Sound and Its Never Over are amazing back-to-back songs. Awful Sound may be my favorite song on the album. It has a very Beatles-eque quality to me. I can't wait to hear it live. The final minute will be a great singalong.
So far I like side 2 more, its more cohesive and a more "typical" AF album. Side 1 is definitely more chaotic and doesn't seem to have a great flow. It seems intentionally jarring, but it doesn't allow me to get comfortable with the album. This may change after a few more listens though. Overall I really like the album, but I don't love it yet. A few of the songs though are some of the favorite AF songs ever. The album will translate really well live though. Add in Neighborhood #3, Haiti, Wake Up, Sprawl II, No Cars Go, and a few of their more upbeat tracks to Normal Person, Reflektor, and Here Comes The Nighttime, and you already have the makings of an amazing, dance-filled live set.
As a side note, I have to stick up for Suburbs. Its my favorite AF album. It doesn't have the standout tracks of Funeral, but the album as a whole is so well thought out, sequenced, and paced, as well having some stunning songs (albeit lower-key), that its a complete work of music art.