Great Album - Arcade Fire's The Suburbs

By Lu

I'd say by far, the best album of 2010, and it deserves all kinds of Grammys.

I used to be a big music buff in my early years. Now, in my 30s, if people asked me what is my favorite band, I would answer - beats me. This is coming from a girl who 20 years ago could tell you that the reason she emigrated to the United States so that she could marry Frank Bello, the bassist of Anthrax. I didn't get to marry him, in fact, I didn't get to see him play live until their reunion tour several years back. They were all old. They were still rockin' though and Frank Bello was still a cutie patootie.

But nowadays, I only listen to good songs, good music that are lucky enough to embrace my ears. Not a radio listener, my ipod playlist usually remain stagnant for months at the time. But do not, I say again, do not, mistake me for a person with bad music taste. Most teenage kids are quite impressed with my music selection. Yes, this old chick can still rock and not succumb to the Top 40s.

Okay, now that I painted a picture of how credible I am in telling you on what to listen to..hahahaha, I think you should give Arcade Fire's "The Suburbs" a chance.

I heard their song the first time on a family road trip to Bandung, Indonesia back in early 2009. My two sisters, myself, and my soon to be brother in law (he's official now), Werner, all had ipods and we took turns to play our selection. My sister Ri, would play her old lame Ricky Martin songs, and my sister, Annette, would try to play all the cool songs that she thought she could school us with. She's my source of information and she had given me some cool new or obscure artists to listen to. Then it was Werner's turn. He played Arcade Fire's song called "Intervention." I just fell in love.

I tried hard not to show them I was impressed and that they did school me...acting cool, like..oh okay..whatever. Yeah...there they are in the picture. That's about several days after their wedding and I took the picture on this really high hill that overlooked the Karmoy Island in Rogaland, Norway. So cute...

But since then, I like everything Arcade Fire. I bought their albums, "Funeral" and "Neon Ballroom", which were so so good. I listened to Intervention almost daily in 2009. It's just one of those songs you couldn't get tired of, you know.

So last year in November I bought "The Suburbs" on iTunes. My laptop just crashed and I had to move all my songs from my ipod to my new Macbook and it took forever. Mind you, I was doing this on the night before I supposed to leave for my annual trip to Jakarta, Indonesia. But I did manage to buy the album for my 31 hour plane ride.

I started to listen to it while waiting for my next plane at Houston airport. So, the first song which is called the same as the name of the album played..and I was mesmerized and I had to look like a dork rocking my body back and forth to the melody of the song. Several years back, I went on a date with this guy I met online. By far, was the worst and weird first date ever. The guy was so thin and tall, not like the picture and he was covered from head to toe with St. Louis Cardinal gear. Not just the sweater, he got pins too and Cardinal credit card. Yeah. After a weird dinner, he took me to see a play called "Mother Courage," which actually could be pretty cool if it was with somebody else. But who really took a first date to see a 3 hour long play? They also played musical instruments like Stomp you know..using like garbage cans or whatever as a percussion medium..and throughout the whole date I felt my seat was rocking. When I turned to see my date, he was the one who rocked back and forth as he tapped on his lap, the whole time. The whole time. But yeah...I was like him when I heard The Suburb for the first time. I finally understood why someone could make an ass out of themselves because of great melody.

The whole album is like a continuous story about living in the suburbs, growing up there, and getting out of there. It is just so cool to be able to listen to album as a whole again. I think now music just sucks....I mean we have no big bands of the past anymore like The Beatles, or Zeppelin, Metallica or Pearl Jam. I was at a christmas party last week and I listen to kids talking about Pearl Jam like they were a miracle. I was like..mh....sad. But what new band we can talk about like the Pearl Jam of the past? Plus we are in a totally "single" world right now...one hit wonder. I mean you buy an album but you listen to 2 songs of the Top 40 singles.

The Suburbs is an album like Dark Side of the Moon is an album. It's continuous story telling and you want to listen to the whole thing. I mean you listen to Dark Side you listen from "Speak to Me" to "Eclipse." Often time I want to press click when the crazy lady wailing for 2 minutes but I usually just let her do her thing. Same with this album...you want to listen to it from beginning to end. I do admit however that the album gets better after you give it enough time and listen to it several times, and then you are just kinda hooked and have it on repeat.

Here is the track list:

1.	"The Suburbs"	5:14
2.	"Ready to Start"	4:15
3.	"Modern Man"	4:39
4.	"Rococo"	3:56
5.	"Empty Room"	2:51
6.	"City with No Children"	3:11
7.	"Half Light I"	4:13
8.	"Half Light II (No Celebration)"	4:25
9.	"Suburban War"	4:45
10.	"Month of May"	3:50
11.	"Wasted Hours"	3:20
12.	"Deep Blue"	4:28
13.	"We Used to Wait"	5:01
14.	"Sprawl I (Flatland)"	2:54
15.	"Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)"	5:25
16.	"The Suburbs (Continued)"

I love all the songs. "We Used to Wait" is designated as single but my one favorite song is "Suburban War." What an awesome song. One of the lines, Win Butler sings it with a haunting melodical epic in the background, was "Oh..my old friend, they don't know me now." It reminds me of an old friend who came back from the past and made my life colorful momentarily, and he's gone and he doesn't know me now. Sad. But the song evokes crazy emotions within me.

Another one is "Modern Man.." Love love love that song and I ask the same question to people who could just do evil and will tell me things to justify their actions. It's just crazy that people can convince themselves doing mean things to others and that there's a just reason for it. "If it feels so right, how come you can't sleep at night?" Yeah, I took things out of context maybe but I remember things that resonate with me.

But each song just supports the other, and I usually don't skip and listen to it from top to bottom.

Anyway...Many thumbs up...I only have 2 thumbs but they got all mine..even my two big toes. I should I guess tell you to wikipedia the band if you're interested on the people. These bunch of Quebecois definitely deserve all the fame and glory for being brilliant brilliant artists. You go Butler Brothers and co! I love you.