Reflecting on The Suburbs by The Arcade Fire

The Arcade Fire has been my favorite band since I first listened to them. They have that power over me where when I hear their sound I simply say "yes, that is music". Their debut album Funeral is, and will always be, my favorite album of all time. I bought it at a used record store in Raleigh, North Carolina, not having any idea the impact my purchase would have on me. They were epic, yet personal. Majestic, yet refined. Then in 2007 they released Neon Bible, and showed the world that Funeral was no fluke and that the Arcade Fire was a band that was not only here to stay, but that they were an important force in our muscial landscape. Now in 2010, they bring us The Suburbs, a sprawling double LP of epic proportions. And yes, they knocked it out of the park for the third time in a row.

This is a long Arcade Fire album. With 16 tracks (not one being filler), the album clocks in at just over an hour. It is classic Arcade Fire, with epic choruses, pulsing melodys, and existential lyrics. Yet, The Suburubs is Arcade Fire's most ambitious album yet, including influences from Springsteen ("Modern Man") to even Depeche Mode or New Order ("Half Light II"). Influences aside, this is still, without a doubt, an Arcade Fire album.

The Suburubs is about just what it's title entails. Life growing up in cookie cutter houses, and the hopelessness of living the way you are "supposed to." It maps all of the hopes and dreams that can deteriorate as life in the suburbs of America locks you in. The lyrics are the Arcade Fire's most personal yet, as Win sings on the title track "I want a daughter while I'm still young, want to hold her hand and show her some beauty before the damage is done." It's as if he knows that with age he will become jaded and tired. He wants to be able to pass on his views while he still has them. While they are still hopeful.

One of the best parts of The Suburbs is the fact that it really highlights Win Butler's songwriting. "Suburban War" may be one of the strongest songs they have ever written. It's a love song, detailing a relationship that exists as the world around them changes. They realize, as life takes them seperate ways, that the place they grew up in has morphed into something unrecognizable. But towards the end, the realization hits that perhaps it wasnt the town that changed, but themselves. "All my old friends, they don't know me now," Win chants at the end. It's aching, bittersweet, yet somehow still hopeful. As the girl in the beginning tells Win "the past won't rest until we jump the fence and leave it all behind." She could be talking about eachother, about the town, or just the fact that the only way to grow is to do so facing forward.

It may sound bleak, just as the idea for Arcade Fire's debut Funeral did. But what has always been prevelant in Arcade Fire's songs is that the ablilty to resist is within ourselves. We all have the ability to make up our own minds about how we view things and how we handle them. We can see the death of family member as a terrible thing, which it is, but we can also choose to celebrate their life. We can let the suburbs of America turn us into zombies, or we can fight it. We can think for ourselves and maintain ourselves. Though things may seem hopeless, they only seem that way. We cant control how things shape us, but we don't have to lose who we are to the world around us.

This album is a classic, just as Funeral and Neon Bible are. In a world where most people have forgotten what it means to sit and listen to an album, where singles sell on iTunes at a more exponential rate than albums do, the Arcade Fire grabs us by the shoulders, sits us down, and makes us listen. They make us realize that craft, emotion, and honesty are the only key ingredients in making music.

The Suburbs is music in it's rawest, most beautiful form. It is absolutely perfect.