A Week With Arcade Fire's "Neon Bible": Day 4
21 March 2007
tell your friends...
Words by Kyle Smith // Illustration by Chris Gregori
“Intervention” sounds like the rapture. The opening groans of a celestial pipe organ put you in the pews as a fable about family and work and war unfolds in scattered moments of clarity. Lots of bands are equal to or greater than the Arcade Fire, but the Fire will sell out stadiums for writing songs like this: unabashedly passionate, written and performed with the ecstasy of a dying gasp.
Through months of pre-release hype I avoided leaked tracks, song titles, reviews, promos, and cover art. It’s a singular thrill to not know what you’re looking for at the record store; your eyes dart around like you’re arriving to the party that your crush might be at. Neon Bible didn’t disappoint, nicely trading in the ornate aesthetic of all previous Arcade Fire issues for the restraint of a neon book that echoes with lenticular animation, recalling in more than one sense Tool’s epic Ænima
Their stateliness and funereal attire could be seen as comically serious, especially as the band builds song suites and concept albums and the such. But at the heart of the Arcade Fire is a palpable sense of spontaneity and fun, some of which comes from low-level troublemaking and some from high-energy stage theatrics, but mostly from the otherworldly joy of playing music with loved ones. See “No Cars Go,” the obvious example here as it ramps to a climax so inevitably huge it’s actually a little boring, or “Ocean of Noise,” which builds with a funky bassline that draws in and out like the tide before giving into 100 seconds of soaring, glowing strings, horns, and voices. The second movement of “Black Wave/Bad Vibrations” crashes with the same intensity. My first time through Neon Bible was complete; since that spell I haven’t ventured past “Ocean of Noise.” Partly because the first six tracks are so strong, and partly for that “Polar Express” factor of finding a lost present under the tree.
When I first wrote about the Arcade Fire two and a half years ago, my editor told me to stop using the word “heartrending.” Then he told me replacing it with “heartbreaking” was not acceptable. Then as now, I am too caught up in my own passion to describe this album; as dizzy with love and energy as the Arcade Fire themselves.
i am rather certain that ‘no cars go’ is indeed a new recording of the old song. the instrumentation and arrangement are slightly different. while i too would have liked to hear more another new song, i have to admit my pleasure in hearing this old one in a different way.
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I was disappointed that they included a song from their earlier EP, No Cars Go. Great song, but the song is from way back in 2003. I have to wonder why they chose this nugget instead of providing new material? Does anyone know if this is the same version from the EP or was it re-recorded or remastered for Neon Bible?