Arcade Fire

 Arcade Fire is without a doubt the most famous of those artists starting with the letter "A" that I'm writing about. And, they are another Canadian band I first learned about at Soundscapes in Toronto. The store had listening statios where you could listen to a selection of CDs in order to see if you'd want to buy a particular CD. Between the accordion, the exuberantly warbling vocals of Win Butler, the Bjork-like vocals of his wife, Règine Chessagne on "I'm Sleeping In A Submarine" and the collective shouts in "No Cars Go", the first three trqacks of their eponymous EP, I knew  I'd be bying the record as I stood listening. "Headlights Look Like Diamonds" was the other stand-out track for me, and when I saw them play in live, I can remember the rhapsodic joy I felt standing at the listening station in Soundscapes, knowing I'd discovered a real gem of a band.

So, when I returned to Toronto a few months later, in 2004, I scoffed up Funeral without even bothering to listen at the listening station. The rewards were rich and many. It may still stand as the best debut LP of any band I can think of off the top of my head, and almost 20 years later, it sounds as fresh and exciting as it did the day I popped it into my cd player in my Subaru, as I drove back home to the Hudson Valley. It's an album I simply cannot singly out individual tracks since it's such a cohesive work of art. The "Neighborhood" series provides a unifying thread though each sonf has its own tonal palette. Again, the passionate vocalizing, the instrumentation, string arrangements, and evocative lyrics all work to make this one of the most rewarding and successful albums and deservedly has led it to being called one of the best and most important LPs of the 2000s so far. I guess I would be remiss if I didn't at least mention the anthemic "Wake Up", which brings audiences to their feet to this day. 

Of course, when Neon Bible was released in 2007, I didn't think twice and grabbed my copy and while Funeral still featured heavily in my rotation, this new one did not disappoint. I found it a perfect accompaniment to my long drives along the New York Thruway from the Hudson Valley to Brooklyn I took ever week. The opening cut, "Black Mirror" sets the pace and "Keep The Car Running" takes it up two notches. I would often catch myself topping out at 100 mph while blasting these songs. There are also some darker hued tunes and a re-recording of "No Cars Go" that absolutely soars!

Strangely, it was around this time that I noticed a curious phenomenon. Though by this time Arcade Fire had moved from small clubs to arenas and festivals; though they had songs featured in television and film; though they had been endorsed by folks such as David Bowie; had appeared on David Letterman and Saturday Night Live; had received several Grammy nominations and had two albums in a row making many Top Ten lists; and even having some songs licensed by the NFL (the proceeds of which when to the charity Partners In Health), I kept meeting people who had never heard of the band! Often, if I then played a song by them, people would recognize the song. I found this strange: when I was growing up, popularity and financial success went hand in hand, but here was a band that was selling records and receiving great press, and yet they didn't seem to have much name recognition.

It was sometime between the release of Neon Bible and The Suburbs that I met Arcade Fire's Sarah Neufeld, their violinist, at a Moksha/Modo Yoga Teacher Training in India. I was on the Moksha Teacher Training faculty and Sarah was a student. I did not know who she was until on our one day off we traveled together into town. We were making small talk, and I had already shared a bit about my NYC punk-rock days in the East Village and how I was now living in Tucson. She then said, "Oh, my band played at Solar Culture", a small artist venue in the warehouse district of downtown Tucson. I asked for the name of her band and she tilted her head, and in a questioning voice said, "Arcade Fire?" as if I would not recognize the name. After I picked my jaw off the floor of the van, I asked why she acted like I wouldn't know the band. She said, "Well, we're not big with hippies." This struck me kind of funny as I'd already shared my punk credentials, and I aksed her why she would think me a hippy. "Well, you know... yoga people." "But Sarah, you're here to become a yoga teacher!" I then said and to this she laughed. Sarah still practices, even when on tour, and is a co-owner and yoga teacher at the two NYC Modo Yoga studios.

2010's The Suburbs was another resounding success as their popularity grew, now hitting number one on the Billboard Charts and winning a Grammy for Album of the Year while getting two other nominations including one for Best Alternative Music Album. Maybe it's an age thing, but I was still meeting people who hadn't heard of the band, even while it was hard to escape hearing them on the radio and in stores everywhere I went! Their next album, Reflektor, was released in 2013 and while being met with critical acclaim, the elector-disco elements took me a bit longer to grow to appreciate and still it's the album I listen to least of thier oeuvre.

In 2017, Everything Now was released and the title track reached number one on Billboard's Top 100. I've written a review here at this blog so all I'll say here is that the opening romantic piano flourish of the title cut still moves me and transports me to a mind movie as the best music tends to do. That year I saw the band perform in Denver and my friend, a newbie to Arcade Fire was blown away by the power of their playing and returned to Tucson a fan. 

The most recent LP, WE, was released last year (2022) and once again it leads off with a beautifully romantic piano motif in "Age Of Anxiety I". As the album progresses we hear elements from previous incarnations of the band with echoes of Reflektor as well as even Funeral but reenvisioned. 

So, Arcade Fire remains one of the most interesting of the "pop" rock bands I follow; perhaps now the most "commercial" among them. Sadly, the release of this album and the tour was tarnished by allegations of sexual abuse/exploitation on the part of the band's frontman/leader, Win Butler. In fact, after just two shows, Feist dropped out from the tour in solidarity with the women accusers. Allegations are just that, and both Win and Règine deny the charges, saying the relationships were all consensual. That said, the women accusing him of abuse are all young -- one just 18 -- and due to the age differences, and no doubt some fannish emotional entanglements, they seem to feel they were taken advantage of. Strangely, after a few days where the media announced this story, I've not seen any follow up. I do not know anything of the current situation.