Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
 

http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/403...thesuburbs.jpg


1. "The Suburbs"
2. "Ready to Start"
3. "Modern Man"
4. "Rococo"
5. "Empty Room"
6. "City with No Children"
7. "Half Light I"
8. "Half Light II (No Celebration)"
9. "Suburban War"
10. "Month of May"
11. "Wasted Hours"
12. "Deep Blue"
13. "We Used to Wait"
14. "Sprawl I (Flatland)"
15. "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)"
16. "The Suburbs (Continued)"

Not officially out yet, but it's leaked and it's quite possibly my favourite album of the year. So I thought I'd make the thread.

Half way so far. Too samey.

:/

I think it's as good as Funeral myself. I bet it will be a real grower for some people, though for me it was one of the most enjoyable first listens of an album in ages.

I was trying to download this today but the links I tried suck.

at least 75% of these songs are shit.

I only dislike about 3 songs out of 16, and I don't hate them and they flow nicely with the album. Give it time! It will grow on you.

still undecided on this.

i love The Suburbs, Ready to Start, Sprawl II and Suburbs (Continued) but I'm not sold on the whole thing yet. Hopefully I start digging it more.

ok i'm gonna listen closely one more time now to see if i will listen again.

The Suburbs - probably my favorite song off the album, unfortunately i find it quite mediocre(cunningstunt this grew!).

Ready To Start - save for bit in middle and outro, loops into zzzz

Modern Man - bleh nothing about this keeps me entertained.

Rococo - nothing going on ro CO CO CO CO CO CO

Empty Room - EXCITING INTRO THEN i got nothin.

City With No Children - are you serious arcade fire? where are the kickass arrangements?

Half Light I - candidate for worst song they have released.

Half Light II (No Celebration) - candidate for worst song they have released's brother.

Suburban War - initially thought this was best song from the album. this is just another song that goes no where. i think i liked it because the backing loop is prettier than most others on this album.

Month Of May - too many win butler vocals in this. really annoying.

Wasted Hours - kill me now, nominee 2.

Deep Blue - one of the better songs. doesn't have me itching to hear again.

We Used To Wait - at least this song starts well.

Sprawl (Flatland) - no redeeming qualities.

Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) - definition of mediocrity.

The Suburbs (continued) - i think they were hoping no one would hear this as it's at the end of the album.

they are using the same downbeat tempo as most the songs on the other albums. the difference is, the older stuff actually had cool little flourishes(eargasms). for the most part these songs just kind of meander and put me to sleep. also it feels like these songs are just shittier versions of older material(samey).

they did one or both of these things:

a. got lazy
b. overthought it

EDIT: voting poor these kids get graded on a curve.

It feels like I'm the only person that really loves this album :(

No one is raving about it, but I really like it.

what does that tell you.

That people are sh*t.

I remember when Humbug was released, everyone moaned about it. Everyone I knew as well, then about 3 months down the line, a bit of repeated listening.. they liked it. Same with this album, I bet it will grow on people.

not me, i'm not listening again.

edit: pitchfork is gonna give this an 8+ because they will refuse to believe arcade fire made a bad album.

Were you not into Arcade Fire that much before this album? Or has this album stopped you from really liking them or what?

I've always like Funeral, but this album has made me even more of a fan than before. My excitement was rewarded :D

funeral is one of my favorite albums and neon bible was great.

i'm pissed, if you didn't notice.

I don't know how you can really dislike this album if you're already a fan, I think it's far better than Neon Bible.


Does anyone give a f*ck what they think anyway?

nowhere near the quality of neon bible. seriously go listen to it again.

i just wanted to predict something.

No one has given them a bad review yet, so I expect Pitchfork to follow suit. Actually, knowing them... they'll probably slate it, just to be different. :rolleyes:

I think it's as good as Funeral. I'm really pleased with it.

wanna fight punk?

i still need to buy it i listened to a few of the songs some of them sounded good

sure if you come to me.

no one really even looks at the album reviews on that site

and truthfully from what i've listened to so far it's not that bad sure its not their best album but it's got it's charm, if you're truly a fan then this album shouldn't make you hate them

i look at allmusic and pitchfork for reviews of albums i had previously anticipated.

i do what i want. and it is so blatantly worse than neon bible i don't know what you people are on.

Haven't heard anything on its quality except what I've read here, so I'm going to restrain myself from downloading it so that I can buy the CD when I get home.

I have Funeral and think it's okay but cannot get into their sound. I had Neon Bible and trashed it because it was ****ing awful. "NE-ON BI-BLE, NE-ON BI-BLE." Yikes.

I'd be willing to give this album a listen if someone provided me with a link because I definitely won't be buying it.

i would also love a link!! D=

At least you're not relying on Rolling Stone.

Anyway, just downloaded...gonna give it a listen and post my deux cents when finished.

i think the biggest difference is that "The Suburbs" has a dirtier sound, but it still sounds good there's this one track (can't remember the name) that i really liked

i don't really use anything for album reviews but when i do i usually look at paste. rolling stone's reviews get a little pretentious at times, and at many times the reviews don't even give a good explanation of the album

So, fuck the haterzzzz cause this album's actually really (pretty) good! I'm down with the title track, Empty Room blows my mind, and Half Life II is really cool as well. Solid album. Not Album of the Year or anything, but really solid. This is slightly worse than Neon Bible, which I think had incredible moments but overall lacked in quality songwriting. I feel like AF tried to compensate on Neon Bible for that lack with super lush production. On the Suburbs, some of the songs aren't that great either, but the production is much more lo-fi and the songs sound more honest. And call me crazy, but I like Win's lyrics a lot. I feel like he 'gets me' even though they can be pretentious and stupid at times.

Good album. 3.5/5


edit: Lol "half life II"

I'd hate to call anyone's opinion wrong, or moronic, but I will here.

Anyway, giving it a first listen, I like it. And that's good, because these guys aren't The Beatles or Dylan or Radiohead, they can't consistently put out masterpieces, I'd say two in a row is a good feat, Radiohead barely made 3 in a row. But I haven't heard the whole thing 3 or 4 times so I can't comment. Funeral took a while for me to see it as a masterpiece, and that's like my favorite album.

edit: Oh, and first impressions point to Good.

I didn't like it that much except for a couple tracks the first time I heard it. But the same thing happened with Neon Bible and I do rather like most of that one now, so I figured I'd give it a few more chances.

Upon doing so, it might be better than Neon Bible, just slower to really get in there. But it does get just a little bit better every time I hear it and I quite like it now.

I'm going to go against the general consensus here and, based upon the four listens I've given it, say it's my favourite Arcade Fire album. The problem I've had with AF in the past is the very thing everybody else seems to love them for - namely their tendency to venture into the grandiose. Funeral is a good/great album, but songs like Wake Up grate on me. Neon Bible was good too. But here, with The Suburbs, the band have seemingly adopted a more restrained, measured musical approach and I love it. It's just as impassioned as their previous albums but in a different way - a way that speaks to me a lot more personally.

For the record (heh), I just listened to the LP with the lyric sheet at hand. That made a big difference.

It's a great album.

This... most definitely. Each Arcade Fire album has gotten progressively worse, but The Suburbs is a giant leap in the lame direction.

agreed.

The song writing on this album is just lazy.

There's something very flat about the album. It's like they set out with the intention of recording an Arcade Fire album and not just simply and honestly expressing themselves musically. Say what you want about Neon Bible; There are some crap songs on it (I personally think that Keep the Car Running makes up for all of the albums shortcomings), but there's also a lot of depth and dimension to it that The Suburbs really lacks.

I disagree with that--I hear a lot of very honest expression in there, it's just that what happens to be being expressed is a more difficult subject matter to convey than they've really tackled before. It's an album about boredom and frustration, about how something big and dramatic was supposed to happen and it didn't; it makes sense that it's not going to be as immediate as their last couple of more apocalyptic records.

It also works better as an album-length piece than as individual tracks. Little motifs start popping up and the atmosphere of how it rises and falls as a whole is better than any of the songs contained unto themselves.

I suppose it's a legit criticism that it's a hard album to get into but I dunno, I don't think it's fair to call it flat or lazy.

just because the subject matter is boring isn't an excuse for the songs to be as well.

That's not what I said, nor do I find them boring.

can anyone please hit me with a link for it?