Let's keep on reviewing decades old records, shall we?
Who : Arcade Fire
Album name : Funeral
Formed : 2001
From : Montreal, Canada
What do they play : Indie rock / chamber pop / art rock / baroque pop / symphonic rock (at least according to Wikipedia)
Release date : September 14 2004
What do you mean this came out almost twenty years ago? Surely that can't be right. Why, I vividly recall listening to it for the first time, it feels like only yesterday, you can't tell me 2004 was twenty years ago, right? RIGHT? God damn, twenty years. And yeah, as I say, I can very vividly recall that first time I listened to it. I know where I was, I know who was with me, I know how I felt as soon as I heard the very first music notes. I also know that prior to that first listen, I hated, hated, hated the band. Why? For no reason other than they seemed to everyone's darling, they felt like the band du jour for me, everybody was raving about them, about how amazing they were when they saw them at some festival or the other. And me, if you can believe this, not having heard a single song of theirs, hated them with a passion. And then came the day, sometime in lates September 2004 where I was at my friend Hugo's and he tells me about his new favourite band - Arcade Fire. I might have groaned audibly. Possibly. But he says 'Trust me. This is good stuff'', and when he says things like that he's usually right. We were in his living room, me, him, and I'm guessing still a couple of others, when he puts the record on. It two all of two seconds for me to fall in love with it. As we listened, Hugo talked a bit about the band - other than previously loathing them, I knew nothing about them. He told they were from Canada, and for some reason, as soon as I started listening to the record I was reminded of the works of Joe Matt, Seth and Chester Brown, published by Drawn & Quarterly, a Canadian comic book publisher. These were very confessional books, autobiographical in their nature, in which they reminisced about different times of their lives - including their childhood and youth. And these songs I was listening to seemed very much like the perfect companion pieces to these stories I so adored.
As the record progressed, I found myself not only enjoying it immensely but also looking forward to listening to it again and again. I never bought it on CD, it's very likely that Hugo burned a copy for me, or I downloaded it. I never really minded the low quality MP3s, especially not back then. I would eventually have it on vinyl, both on my present collection as well as the one I sold off back in 2013. This also marks a strange relationship that I have with Arcade Fire albums. While I love most of them - none of them is an outright 10/10 for me - what I actually love is like a handful of tracks and then sort of just tolerate the deep cuts. Some are good, some are just OK, others are just now skips to me. I have always hoped that some day these tracks would resonate more with me, but eh, it is what it is. Still, the songs I do love - and let's just focus on 'Funeral' for the moment - more than make up for those that I find just pretty ok. Though to be fair, here it's only two songs really that I don't like as much as the others - 'Neighborhood #4 (7 Kettles)' and 'In the backseat'. I don't mind them, really, I just don't love them as much as I love the others.
I've been trying to figure out what would my desert island disc selection be like, and I don't think I could exclude Arcade Fire. And this would be a contender, but there's one I think I do like more. One that has grown and grown inside my heart. Which one is it? Stay tuned to find out.
If I had to rate this one, my nostalgia goggles do want me to stay that this is flawless, and though I know it's not a 10/10, that's what my nostalgic self would like to rate it. But... listening to it now I do find it a little bit less exciting. A little less good than what was to come. But still pretty darn good. Like 8/10 good.
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