WE - Arcade Fire: Review
Arcade Fire
are a Canadian indie rock band, in fact they are likely THE Canadian indie rock band. They've released albums that were both massively acclaimed and massively successful like Funeral and The Suburbs. Neither of the bands previous two releases reached that level of acclaim, with their last album, 2017's Everything Now, receiving a particular amount of backlash from fans.
Review By Lav:
I have no Arcade Fire hot takes. The closest thing would be that I think Neon Bible is slightly overrated and some of the deep cuts on Reflektor are kind of underrated. But there's no doubt that Funeral and The Suburbs are indie era defining masterpieces and that the band was essential to introducing the sound of indie music into the mainstream. While I will make a concession here about the title track and I ended up putting Creature Comfort on my year end singles list, there's no denying that Everything Now was Arcade Fire's worst album by far. So how do you bounce back from that?
Well they are still an insanely good live band. There is clearly still a massive audience waiting to consume whatever they do including solo albums and side projects from various members. On WE Arcade Fire stick to their guns when it comes to instrumentation and theme, but make enough advancements in form and function to make the 5 years they took off feel like a worthwhile break.
The album is just 10 tracks made up of four two part song, an interlude and an outro. But Arcade Fire are not short of breath and they cover a surprising amount of ground across all these songs. The era got off to a pretty good start with me when they dropped a two part single The Lightning which I liked then and still like quite a bit. Part I is a youthful and catchy piece of indie rock, the kind of thing the band have always been excellent at making. While it may be outdone by part two I can't understate just how much it provides in the tracklist by giving it great set up to transition in from. The Lightning II is still probably my favorite song on the whole album. It might be the most Springsteen I've ever heard Arcade Fire despite the fact that they've flirted with the idea in the past. This is just a big shimmering indie jam with instrumentation that is present but never distracting. In fact it's the perfect pairing for the high reaching refrains and nostalgic lyrics. This song rules.
The second single I had a far more negative reaction to. Unconditional I is the kind of song Arcade Fire are usually great at, translating youthful angst into beautiful swelling compositions. Unfortunately this might be the most phony sounding thing I've heard anywhere in 2022. There are so many lyrics that just make me roll my eyes and the "do do do" transitions feel well below the band's pen game. If there's one thing I will admit to liking about the song it's the string section which makes the instrumental in the second half marginally more exciting but generally this hasn't grown on me much since I first heard it. Unconditional II is slightly better and was attention grabbing for both it's subtitle "Race And Religion" and for sporting a Peter Gabriel feature. To tackle the first one the songs energy is more about being as important to somebody as their race and religion and in terms of love song topics I've actually come around to it. While "this love is no competition" is a pretty lame line I like the concept more than I would have thought. Peter Gabriel doesn't do much aside from sing background vocals on the song and he also isn't credited as a songwriter or producer so I don't have a whole lot to make of that. It's a fine song and better than its predecessor but really a highlight.
The opening pair of tracks are Age Of Anxiety which set up the theme of inconsistent quality across the records song pairings. Part I kicks the whole record off with an emotional tone and it's one that admittedly hooks me in pretty quickly with Win's catchy refrains. Unfortunately around the halfway point it shifts into a more synthetic beat and Regine takes over lead vocals which are mixed in an incredibly strange way. It all works to make the song feel less sincere and while I wouldn't say the second half is a disaster or anything it certainly doesn't do anything to help the track. Part II is much better and another one of my favorite songs here. It starts off as a stark piano ballad with call and response vocals but it works into something genuinely epic. The instrumental journey the song takes is so driving and just fits perfectly into the creases of my brain as each new piece of instrumentation and vocals soar higher than the last. I honestly think the song is great it has killer refrains and perfectly executed aspects of Arcade Fire's music both new and old.
End Of The Empire is the two-part track that I most thought would be some kind of epic prog rock suite. Turns out it's just two pretty straightforward songs. If you're wondering about the evocative title part I-III kicks it off by foretelling the end of the "American Empire". Even though it's overtly political the details are much more about the emotion of the events then the events themselves. But it really does effectively convey that idea of dancing at the end of the world through a swaying, melancholic instrumental. I don't think it exactly sticks the landing and the transition into the next song isn't great, but that's a minor complaint. End of the Empire IV is a piano ballad that shifts the focus from societal to technological with a splash of commentary on drug addiction. I like the sound of it but none of the commentary or instrumentation really blows me away and the way they seem to be generically applying technology terms feels heavy handed. Despite it all I think Win and Regine do still manage to deliver the compelling performances you'd expect from them.
The closing track and title track WE is a good representation of my conflicted feelings on a lot of this album. It's a very light ending with stripped back guitar strumming that doesn't really erupt until the tracks literal final seconds. What it does successfully accomplish is trying some of the end of the world symbology together in a cyclical way. The chanting about "once everything ends, we'll do it again" feels like a really perfect way to close the record thematically even if it isn't delivered with the grandiosity I would have hoped.
This record is fine. It's an improvement from Everything Now that shows the band is clearly listening to what attracted fans to them in the first place and playing to their strengths. But it's two steps forward and one step back as subpar songwriting, weird mixing choices or just an overwhelming inability to sell their authenticity tend to trip up some of these songs. When they're on they deliver tracks that live up to the bands name and reputation, but there are inconsistencies just about everywhere you look. 6/10
This cover does a great job of keeping your interest while still being a simple image. I love all the colors in the eye and the depth you get in the image. I think the bottom left of the composition is a little barren and would have been the perfect place for an emblem or some branding. It's not the more inventive concept but it's really nice to look at. 7/10
