Arcade Fire, a death-love pill

So I clicked on " DDA Playlist June 2013". Ready To Start - Arcade Fire. Drums, bass, it was so fresh, Win started singing the sticky chorus "I am ready to start". I was listening what will become in my favorite band, this is my week's odd post, this is Arcade Fire.

DDA, allows me to listen this awesome song, but it was on the Reflektor's era that I started the Fire's obsession. I'm start to thinking you are kinda lose, What is he talking about? What is a Reflektor?

Win Butler

Win Butler is the epicenter of this music eartquake, he was born on California in 1980, his musical family legacy can give us a clue, Alvino Rey's grandson, The King's Sisters Luise grandson, his mother, Liza Rey plays harp and sings. Is not a coincidence that I'm talking about this musical portrayal in this post. After high school Win studied photography and creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College, but left after a year. Butler moved to Montreal in 2000 to attend McGill University, where he met his future wife, Régine Chassagne.

Régine Chassagne

Régine Chassagne is the hypocenter of this music earthquake, she was born in Montreal, Quebec. Her parents, who were of Haitian origin, emigrated from Haiti during the dictatorship of François Duvalier. Chassagne went to the prestigious Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf before earning a B.A. in communication studies at Concordia University in 1998, and went on to study jazz voice briefly at McGill University. She was singing jazz at an art opening at Concordia in 2000 when Win Butler met her and persuaded her to join his band; They married in 2003.

Regine Chassagne + Win Butler = Arcade Fire

2001: First Arcade Fire's EP

(Listen to their first masterpiece, this is No Cars Go)

Funeral (2004)

Arcade Fire sight with Merge Records to start to work on their first studio album. Funeral was recorded between 2003 and 2004's winter at Quebec, Canada. This is a short description of the David Moore wrote in 2004 for Pitchfork as a critic for the album:

"The years leading up to the recording of Funeral were marked with death. Chassagne's grandmother passed away in June of 2003, Butler's grandfather in March of 2004, and bandmate Richard Parry's aunt the following month. These songs demonstrate a collective subliminal recognition of the powerful but oddly distanced pain that follows the death of an aging loved one. Funeral evokes sickness and death, but also understanding and renewal"

As David Moore said, Funeral evokes death, evokes sadness, shame, love, regrets, feelings, something that you can hear in the first opener of the album "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)". Funeral was written and recorded around funerals, I can't imagine how strong was doing music in this perspective, however I'm pretty sure this was their first step to prove their oddness and establish a sound. From this record, got out their firsts live anthems like "Wake Up"and "Rebellion (Lies)" or perhaps the melancholical "Crown of Love". In this record was added one of the Win's grandfather Alvino Rey's treasure "My Buddy".

Funeral was a tremendous success, was nominated for a grammy for "Best Alternative Album" a 9.7 of 10 for Pitchfork, and four stars of five by The Rolling Stone as many others critics. The album was certified Gold by the Record Industry Association of America for over 500,000 copies sold in the US.

Neon Bibles (2007)

Neon Bibles was the second record the band came out, the album was recorded on a a café that had once been a church and a Masonic Temple. The band spent the latter half of 2006 recording a majority of the album there.

"If Funeral captured the enormity of personal pain, Neon Bible sounds large enough to take on the whole world" wrote Stephen M. Deusner for Pitchfork Neon Bible's review.

Neon Bible is not so orchestral like Funeral was, Neon Bible sounds dismal, innovative, achieve a headlong forward motion, bolstered by immense church organs sounds that you can easily hear on "Intervention". Is an aggressively gothic record that shows the evolution of the band. "Keep The Car Running" first hope step , kinda slowly, it is the non stop council, the life goes on song. For this album one of their first successful song was remastered "No Cars Go" for the Neon Bible era, song that originally was written for their first EP in 2003. In the new version we can hear the drastic change they have added, it preserves the same melody but faster, stronger, with kind brass instruments, it's the katarsis song of a new beginning; the second strophe "Between the click of the light and the start of the dream" just the lonely voice of Win, when suddenly appears an accordion and a scream war giving us prospect and confident "LET'S GO" and the live version is just SICK!

(3:36)

Neon Bible became Arcade Fire's highest charting album at the time, debuting on the Billboard 200 at number two, selling 92,000 copies in its first week and more than 400,000 to date. Neon Bible was cited as an example of the popularization of indie rock.

The Suburbs (2010)

The Suburbs, is the third studio album of the band; if Neon Bible sounds gothic maybe The Suburbs is the baroque album "You always seemed so sure, that one day we'd be fighting in a suburban war" sings Win in the opening song "The Suburbs", to being followed by the assurance "Ready To Start".

"On their fantastic third album, The Suburbs, they aim higher than ever, with Roman numerals and parentheses in the song titles. In their dictionary, "suburbs" is nowhere near "subtlety." But that just adds to the emotional wallop".

Wrote Rob Sheffield for The Rolling Stone

I found out this band listening this album, specifically "Ready To Start". Is another live anthems, if No cars go was a scream war, Ready To Start is just the turn on button of our lives, "Now I'm Ready to Start, I would rather be wrong, than live in the shadows of your song" is the coincidence song, the will power song. "City with no Children" is perhaps Win and William's folk song that transmits the missing home.

Half Life II (No Celebration) remains the U2's City of Blinding Lights, doesn't it?

Suburbs was the grammy winner for "Best Album of the Year" on 2011, Best International Album at the 2011 BRIT Awards, Album of the Year at the 2011 Juno Awards, and the 2011 Polaris Music Prize for best Canadian album. Two weeks after winning Grammy's Album of the Year, the album jumped from No. 52 to No. 12 on the Billboard 200, the album's highest ranking since August 2010

Reflektor (2013)

"Going to Haiti for the first time with Regine was the beginning of a major change in the way that I thought about the world. Usually, I think you have most of your musical influences locked down by the time you're 16. There was a band I [feel] changed me musically, just really opened me up to this huge, vast amount of culture and influence I hadn't been exposed to before, which was really life-changing." Win Butler for Rolling Stone

The Haiti's journey was the main focus point of inspiration for this album. The Haitian Carnival's was a tremendous input for the sound that Arcade Fire has been doing for the last 10 years, african percussion and rara music were a remarkable piece in this record. Another uplift for Win was his favorite film, Black Orpheus (1959) by Marcel Camus.

Awful Song (Oh Eurydice) and It's never a over (Oh Orpheus) it's the love conversation, the suffer tunnel, the awful and hope together, the love being made music; and finally in the wisely words of Annie Clark (St. Vincent) for The Talkhouse:

“AWFUL SOUND (OH EURYDICE)” AND “IT’S NEVER OVER (OH ORPHEUS)” ARE VERY ROMANTIC SONGS, IF YOU ASK ME. THE DOOMED ROMANCE…THE MOST ROMANTIC OF ALL ROMANCES.

So basically the record is a combination of african sounds and greek love, something that you can easily find in the 13 songs of the album, from the genius "Here Comes The Night Time" sticky bass, the fast tempo at the final "Now the preachers they talk up on the satellite, if you're looking for Hell, just try looking inside" it's tremendous! "Normal Person" and the kind piano beginning "Is anything strange as a normal person? Is anyone as cruel as a normal person?" just think about it... On the other hand "Reflektor" is the 7:32 minutes of fun and probably the final blend of their musical style. "Afterlife" is their maximal musical achievement, a song that talk for us about death, about a person that we love, but is no longer with us; a song that is capable to remove our darkness to turn it into light, into humanity, into love.

"The Best Album of Arcade Fire" by The Rolling Stone

Reflektor is my favorite record of the band, and my obsess for months, it's an album that I've listened so many times that is set in my soul, an album that I used to write thoughts while I listened for the first time, something that I used to do, to finalise this long, but odd post I would like to share a sentence of my stated:

"We must fill us with more possibilities than a few of probabilities, we do not allow that vulnerability transform us in people who will never imagine we're going to be, believe in what we are, in what we became, because every day we lived is a change inside ourselves, because after listen us , to listen what we do, to see what we do, we are different, but authentic by nature, that authenticity will be carried into magical decibels only and only by us the owners of the world"

This is my week's recommendation, this time a top 10! ENJOY!