Albums of the Year Number 7: The Suburbs by Arcade Fire In my flat, this has proved a rather controversial choice. Although I enjoyed The Suburbs a lot, my partner is not keen. If I’m honest though, I can see where she’s coming from. The bad news is that this album is another point on Arcade Fire’s consistent downward trajectory. The best album they’ve released is still Funeral, and by some margin. And The Suburbs is, unfortunately, also not as good as Neon Bible. Funeral was a solid album full of outstanding tracks. Neon Bible was a slightly patchy album with some outstanding tracks. The Suburbs is a slightly patchy without any particularly outstanding track. But the news isn’t all bad. I like Arcade Fire a lot, and them on a bad (or at least unremarkable) day is still far better than a lot of indie music that’s out there. Their formula of dispensing with the irony and really seeming to enjoy what they do goes a long way for me, and they’re still the masters at taking a simple song premise and just letting it charge off to its natural conclusion. And although there aren’t any tracks to the standard of Keep the Car Running or Intervention on this album, We Used To Wait and Sprawl II are still damn fine songs. But the thing is, I’ve probably listened to this album more than any other this year. Firstly because despite a few reservations, I like it a lot. Secondly, though, it’s because I was expecting that a few listens in it would all come together and I’d realise that this was actually a masterpiece. But it never did. So sure, it’s a fine record, and far above the standard of many artists out there. It’s charmingly nostalgic and feels like a real album, rather than a disparate collection of songs that just happened to be written at the same time. But it’s still a disappointment. Indeed, if Arcade Fire don’t stop this downward spiral of theirs sooner or later, they’ll become the dull, formulaic band that their harshest detractors already think they are.

Albums of the Year

Number 7: The Suburbs by Arcade Fire

In my flat, this has proved a rather controversial choice. Although I enjoyed The Suburbs a lot, my partner is not keen. If I’m honest though, I can see where she’s coming from.

The bad news is that this album is another point on Arcade Fire’s consistent downward trajectory. The best album they’ve released is still Funeral, and by some margin. And The Suburbs is, unfortunately, also not as good as Neon Bible. Funeral was a solid album full of outstanding tracks. Neon Bible was a slightly patchy album with some outstanding tracks. The Suburbs is a slightly patchy without any particularly outstanding track.

But the news isn’t all bad. I like Arcade Fire a lot, and them on a bad (or at least unremarkable) day is still far better than a lot of indie music that’s out there. Their formula of dispensing with the irony and really seeming to enjoy what they do goes a long way for me, and they’re still the masters at taking a simple song premise and just letting it charge off to its natural conclusion. And although there aren’t any tracks to the standard of Keep the Car Running or Intervention on this album, We Used To Wait and Sprawl II are still damn fine songs.

But the thing is, I’ve probably listened to this album more than any other this year. Firstly because despite a few reservations, I like it a lot. Secondly, though, it’s because I was expecting that a few listens in it would all come together and I’d realise that this was actually a masterpiece. But it never did.

So sure, it’s a fine record, and far above the standard of many artists out there. It’s charmingly nostalgic and feels like a real album, rather than a disparate collection of songs that just happened to be written at the same time. But it’s still a disappointment. Indeed, if Arcade Fire don’t stop this downward spiral of theirs sooner or later, they’ll become the dull, formulaic band that their harshest detractors already think they are.