The Arcade Fire - "Everything Now"

Unless you've been living underneath a rock, then trust me you know who Arcade Fire is.  But just in case, Arcade Fire are the kings of gigantic, epic, cinematic Indie Rock.  In 2004, they released their debut, "Funeral", and the world quickly took notice.  This album was instantly regarded as a true modern classic and has since become one of the most iconic Independent releases of all time.   The tracks here all had this grand and very flashy feel to them.  Win Butler's lyrics were passionate and romantic, and the gigantic sound of Arcade Fire made the performances truly works of art.  In 2007. Arcade Fire released their follow up, "Neon Bible", my favorite Arcade Fire album.  This album right from its opening notes was much darker and richer, with strong political undertones.  The music, however, was equally as grand and gigantic.  "Intervention" was this huge looming track with grand church organs, while tracks like "No Cars Go" were the sort of once in a lifetime passionate performances that Arcade Fire showed on their debut.  It would be a few years until we would hear from Arcade Fire again.  in 2010, they, of course, shocked the world by winning album of the year for their album "The Suburbs".  It's an album that at first I really didn't understand or fully appreciate, and it's certainly an album that you need to take time with to fully appreciate.  But this was just such a wholesome, beautiful, and thought provoking album for Arcade Fire, one that showed them to be still one of the most vital and fearless indie bands.  Then we have 2013's double album "Reflektor".  Now, there was a TON to love about this album, and overall I did certainly enjoy a lot of this album.  As a matter of fact, I feel like some of Arcade Fire's best songs showed up here.  From "Normal Person" to "Afterlife", there were some incredible songs here.  But, I felt like I was missing something here.  There once again seemed to be some gigantic meaning behind it all that I was just missing.  That of course made a lot of this album a little confusing to me, especially on some of the incredibly long and less interesting second album.  However, I did seriously appreciate the much more Dance sound Arcade Fire was working with. Not so shockingly, the singles leading up to this new album continue on with the same sort of Post-Disco sound of "Reflektor"  And for the most part, they've been darn good.  Let's talk about this new Arcade Fire album.

(The one song that turned me on to Arcade Fire)

This album starts off with “Everything_Now”, and instrumentally this is just dreary.  But it goes further than that because Arcade Fire have done plenty of dreary tunes.  Hell, “Neon Bible” in its entirety is dreary.  But what it comes down to is just how lifeless this intro comes off.  Win Butler’s vocals even just come off so bland.  I don’t know what this intro is supposed to be, but it really doesn’t start me off on good terms with this album, at all.  “Everything Now” is up next, and honestly, as far as single goes I really love just about everything going on here.  I feel like the groove is just the sort of direction I wanted to hear Arcade Fire go in after “Reflektor”.  It’s catchy and groovy, but it also has that sort of political edge that Arcade Fire have been working on for a few years.  Lyrically, it’s rebellious and also thought provoking, all while remaining seriously catchy and uplifting.  The strings are on point, the sort of disco vibe is strong, overall I really don’t have anything bad to say about “Everything Now”.  Now, like I said, Arcade Fire have been going in a more Post-Disco direction for years now.  But “Signs of Life” is practically straight up disco.  To be honest, it really doesn’t come off too shabby at all.  Win’s very funky delivery, while it could have been seriously awful, actually comes off strangely hip here.  Not to mention, I really do love some of Regine Chassagne’s backing vocals which seem to pop in wherever they’re needed most.  Once again, I really don’t have anything bad to say about this one.  However, I do feel like “Reflektor” as abstract and adventurous as it was, often had a sort of hopeful sound very deep down.  But so far on this album, I haven’t heard anything close to that.  But as a whole “Signs of Life” is still pretty groovy and likable.  “Creature Comfort” up next is even heavier and dreamier, with once again showing Win going for a sort of funky delivery.  And if I’m being honest, this one took a while to grow on me.  The first time I heard “Creature Comfort”, I was just sort of confused on what I was hearing.  But as I’ve listened to this more, I do like a lot of the grooves here.  But man, this album continues to be just so damn dreary and depressing.  Arcade Fire have made a name for themselves bringing in lavish instrumentals and stunning concepts.  But we’ve really yet to see that here.  I still really dig “Creature Comfort” overall, but this album so far has been a completely different animal for Arcade Fire.  But so far, I haven’t heard anything actually bad.  But then we get “Peter Pan”, and to be honest, this track is seriously ugly.  Like, REALLY ugly.  The production on this one is just so muddy, but not even in an artistic way.  Win doesn’t sound nearly as invested on this track as he has in the past.  To be honest, his passion, which at one point was just such a gigantic part of Arcade Fire’s music has been pretty absent from this album so far.  “Peter Pan” just comes off so juvenile and sounds very amateur-life for Arcade Fire overall.  Like, this sounds like a demo from a band trying to rip off Arcade Fire.  It’s not flattering or pretty, it’s just pretty childish.  

    This album continues to spiral out of control with “Chemistry.  And let me just say, the last thing I wanted to hear on this album was a bizarre fake reggae track.  There’s obviously a groove here, but I’d be lying if I said it was a compelling or interesting one.  I still feel like, underneath all of this music and atmosphere, Arcade Fire are at their most lifeless.  Now, I do like a few riffs here and there, especially on the chorus.  But everything else about “Chemistry” is just so repetitive and boring, and quite frankly a mess.  But worst of all, I really feel like I have almost nothing to say about a lot of these tracks.  Years ago, I would be able to go off on ONE Arcade Fire track for a paragraph easily.  But with the songs here, I’ve been struggling just to get a few sentences out.  Then we have “Infinite Content”, which shows Arcade Fire going down the Punk route.  And you guessed it, it’s the exact opposite of what I wanted to hear.  Now, Arcade Fire have done upbeat tracks plenty of times, hell even rougher ones like this.  But I feel like this is just so damn full of itself.  I don’t know if “Infinite Content” is supposed to be some massive statement, but it’s far from that.  It doesn’t even come off as full of attitude or anything.  At the end of the day, this track is just not what I want to hear from Arcade Fire, and in a minute and thirty seconds I really didn’t take anything away from it.  But that’s not all, because up next we have the same damn track in country form with “Infinite_Content”.   But the original recording was so awful, that I honestly feel like this Country-Fied track should have taken its place.  Yeah, it’s still a little full of itself and a little too overly simple, but at the very least, it has a sort of grace and elegance to it that I look for in Arcade Fire tracks.  Some of these instrumentals are actually really likable overall.  But it makes me ask myself, why wasn’t this track dove into further?  Then we have “Electric Blue”, which quite frankly is a mess.  This is the first single on this album that sort of had me worrying about this album.  The groove here is pretty flat and uninteresting.  And while I usually really love Regine’s vocals, she honestly really doesn’t sound good here.  To be honest, her usually sweet vocals come off as sort of obnoxious.  As far this disco vibe goes, Win carries it a whole lot more nicely than Regine.  But something’s bothering me.  I’m still just seriously brought down by a lot of this music.  Like, I love dark music.  But I can’t remember Arcade Fire ever coming off this lifeless.  However, I do really like the groove on “Good God Damn”, as well as Win’s sort of low-key performance.  But once again, why in the hell is this just so damn depressing.  Tracks like this remind me of tracks from “Reflektor” in nightmare form.  But compared to a lot of the other tracks here, I don’t think this track is that bad.  I love the chorus here, and I do feel like for the more mellow side of this album this comes off nicely.  Plus, I feel like when they let their disco vibes flow a little more into the background, it comes off more powerful in the long run.  

    Now, from the intro of “Put Your Money on Me”, I was actually sort of interested in this sort of progressive and flashier sound.  And as far as an instrumental goes, this is actually one of the more interesting tracks I’ve heard here in a while.  But vocally, holy hell, why does Win sound so damn exhausted.  Like, his performance here is honestly draining.  It honestly sounds like someone had to rip this performance out of him.  At the very least though, Regina sounds better, and the instrumental is a whole lot more interesting.  Now, to be honest, I do love how lush and beautiful “We Don’t Deserve Love” comes off.  The atmosphere here is seriously wonderful as well.  But once again, I really can’t get past Win’s vocals.  Like, they’re seriously awful, and most of all uninspired.  Not to mention, I feel like one again these lyrics are just so bloated and annoying.  That being said, I still sort of like this track.  Maybe Win’s performance is really forgettable, but at least this track draws me in with some great production and interesting instrumentals.  Arcade Fire end this album off with another interpretation of the album’s opener with “Everything Now (Continued)”.  And yes, it’s just as messy and seriously dreary.  But I don’t even feel like there’s even a reasoning behind it.  It’s just more of the same, and it’s just as underwhelming.  I do like some of the strings later on, but that’s far from enough to save this album for me.  

Rating:  6.1/10

Give A Listen To:  “Everything Now”, “Signs of Life”, “Creature Comfort”, “Good God Damn”

Overall Thoughts:  Um...well this is awkward....but.....What the hell even happened here?  Up until this point, Arcade Fire had one of the most flawless discographies in all of Indie.  But here, Arcade Fire sound like they're wandering without a purpose, and truly exhausted.  This album, outside of a few solid singles is painful to listen to.  From the passionless vocals to the muddy production to the bizarre experiments, this album is the first time that Arcade Fire hasn't wowed me atleast to some extent.  What a dissapointment.