Arcade Fire - Neon Bible (2007)

I can’t pretend to understand all the fuss over the Arcade Fire. I liked Funeral as much as the next person, but after a few faithful spins I mostly reverted to Neutral Milk Hotel for my intermittent ‘indie’ fix. Largely, I felt the critical fawning the band received was pretty unsubstantiated. I mean, Time magazine called them “Canada’s Most Intriguing Rock Band.” Earnestly, many of the bands on Montreal’s Constellation label, most dependably Silver Mt. Zion & Do Make Say Think, are working with rock music in ways both more inspired and compelling than Win Butler and Co.

That said, I feel like the Villain saying that I found Neon Bible thoroughly unimpressive. I was hoping for an album that would build on the sweetly melancholic maladies of Funeral and abet the potential of the Arcade Fire’s admittedly unique instrumentation. Not so much. Neon Bible is track after track of contrived crescendos, most of which fall short of the runaway freight-train chord progressions of the more uplifting dirges found on Funeral. The album peaks in the middle, with “Ocean of Noise”, “The Well and the Lighthouse” and “Antichrist Television Blues” providing momentary glimpses of just why the Arcade Fire are so immensely popular in the indie-pop junket. Sadly, three songs does not a good album make. Following Butler’s final rousing chorus of “Tell me Lord, am I the antichrist?”, Neon Bible buckles and the whole affair crumbles into a bland sonic pile that sounds like too much of the same.

Verdict: 3.2/5 (mediocre)