Arcade Fire - Funeral

There was a time Arcade Fire wasn’t popular. This seems like such a hauntingly long time ago. It’s not haunting so much as in it’s spooky but moreso, lingering, their place in music now. I mean, they headlined both Coachella and Austin City Limits last year; forget that, they won the Best Album of the Year Grammy for The Suburbs recently. Sure, it’s arbitrary that last award but it's semi-HUGE for an ‘indie’ band. But there was a time, back in 2004, where they weren’t as massively well-known and adored. Back a time when they were still a modest band with grand impressions and sounds but not so much the audience.

With Funeral they really mastered some of their most magical moments. I remember getting the album in the haze of December 2004 and immediately hooking into the bookends. It starts with a frenzied attack of melody, guitar, driving drums and Win Butler’s amazing vocals. I remember first hearing this song and feeling a wave of emotions run through me while the song continued to swell into an incredible rush of sounds. I must’ve played this song the most out of any other song, I fell in love with it upon first listen and now, it might be my favorite song by them. There’s big crashing cymbals, spectral synthesizer and pulling keyboards on top of rolling drums and guitars - it was an exceptional way to start an album and a lot of what really made Funeral so special was the downright flawless sequencing, beginning with “Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels).”


With “In the Backseat,” there’s a song that ends with a beautiful female vocal in Régine Chassagne. I love the way it’s about passing around in the backseat where you don’t have to worry about a thing in the world. You can simply enjoy the view, you don’t have to even speak, you don’t have to concentrate, and you can simply forget it all. The metaphors run wild with everything from life passing you by, to finding a comforting love where you can simply bask in their nurturing care and escape from the wrath of the real world – it’s all up for interpretation. What I do know is the way the music quietly and subtly grows before the drums explode is sheer genius: there are both passing waves before the clash of water comes, revealing her voice to the backdrop of flourishing strings and wind instruments. "I’ve been learning to drive my whole life," she belts at the end: I’ve been trying to just find a way to conquer it all, let me relax. It’s a remarkable calling and with music that pairs it so justly, so fairly – like a perfect blend of musical expression and emotion – there wouldn’t be another way to end Funeral.

I’m lame for barely mentioning this album now but it’s been a terribly challenging day (emphasis on the terrible!) and I got to blast it through my headphones just right now. It’s sort of nostalgic in a sense that I really wrapped my head around it enough to let it live with me for years and years. This is a tremendous band and many, I’m not sure if I’m included, consider this their best album. Surely I wont leave the entire middle eight songs go unmentioned; I hope to write more on it soon. Until then. – Bryan