Arcade Fire -- The Suburbs

  Immensely popular Arcade Fire hasn't missed the mark with any of their releases, and to me their third full length effort is their best.  It was a great moment in indie rock history that these guys won the Grammy for album of the year, and countless other awards, but the Grammy, however cheesy the award is, is still a big deal, like winning an Oscar.  Now is it the best indie rock record ever released, hardly, but it solidifies the scene, like London Calling should have done for punk (why didn't that win), and Sgt. Pepper did for the hippies.

  I love this record, the damn thing opens like a shotgun blast, the first side is mostly a slew of mega hits and ends with the heavily intense Rococo.  I don't know what it is but their dark mix of electro folk shogaze just reminds of the city of Montreal, especially in the winter, I know that the city itself influenced them since they live there, but word is the record is about their suburb experiences in Houston, I suspect that the lyrics have are Huston, but the sound is Montreal.

  I can't say that the words move me too too much, some tunes seem to have good insight, especially when he sings about wanting a daughter, showing her beauty ... yadda yadda ... that statement is against the grain for the generation he is speaking to, from what I know of the hipster 30 somethings, they mostly don't want kids, they just want to live for themselves, and see the world as a bad place for children, not a place of beauty for children!  But otherwise the whiny spoilt art school dropout "businessman drink my blood" kinda thing is a big turn off for me!  Otherwise who cares, the album is great!  And marks a scene that's been around for over 20 years into the history books!  So thanks guys from this pretentious prick!