I still haven’t read other reviews
about The Arcade Fire’s newest full length Reflektor,
but what I’ve been hearing are words like “dancey, Bowie-esque, dense, and self
indulgent.”
I
am here to dispel these rumors, minus the Bowie one. He totally does sing on the first track. Now the weird thing is that those
aforementioned adjectives were used with a negative connotation (at least as
they were relayed to me). However,
I wanted to wait till I listened to the album all the way thru in my office at
home on vinyl uninterrupted (with the exception of flipping both records) to
review the album myself. I changed
the color of the lights in the room to a pale blue and green, dimmed the over
head lights and sit dead center in my office and just listened.
My
first thoughts were something like “Oh my god, they have defeated other bands
at being bands, they have done the unthinkable with so much elegance. They managed to get dancey without
being lame.” So let me rewind a
little bit. I reviewed the single
Reflektor that was released as a 12” back in September as a teaser to the
album. If you scroll up a few
reviews back you can see the optimism and excitement for this album that
fanboy-ed its way out of me. I can
say now that it wasn’t misplaced.
"Going to Haiti for the first
time with Regine was the beginning of a major change in the way that I thought
about the world. Usually, I think you have most of your musical influences
locked down by the time you're 16. There was a band I [feel] changed me
musically, just really opened me up to this huge, vast amount of culture and
influence I hadn't been exposed to before, which was really
life-changing." (Win Butler).
Butler cites Haitian music as a
major turning point in his work.
To me it is tough to say if he did have a musical epiphany in Haiti, but
the band does seem to be at their grooviest. If you listen carefully to the drums, you can hear that in
some places on the album they are actually tuned to the root notes of the
chords to thicken up the bass and reinforce the melodic bass lines in the
songs. It took me two listens to
the whole album to take in the full depth of just how involved this album is.
The
album sparkles in a way that would normally scream big budget, but for the
Arcade Fire, beginning at their humble first EP up through Reflektor, the
movement to a larger than life sound is natural. They have earned the right to put out something grandiose
and impressive. The cool
part is, rather than becoming overwhelmed by the restrictions that normally come
with such a high risk release (in terms of budget) the band actually embraces
it. With James Murphey (LCD
Soundsystem) and Markus Davis at the console they mix a poignant blend of fuzzy
layered guitars, BIG drums, thick bass, powerful lyrics and the most confident
vocal delivery of Butler’s career.
At times employing the “lo-fi/hi-fi” trick of dirtying up the vocal
tracks to great effect. Reflektor
moves quickly, keeping the listener interested with transitional ambiance,
screeching feedback and dub-ed out spoken announcements introducing the
band.
The biggest departure from previous
albums that I noticed is the lack of their traditional instrumentation. On previous albums, accordion, strings,
trumpets and a layer of other melodic instruments that moved together to
provide melodic reinforcement are gone.
Yes, here and there they will toss in something that is doubled with one
of those instruments, but it is no longer a big focal point. Reflektor is much more subtle and
understated but somehow saying more than any previous release. Much closer to Neon Bible than Suburbs. It is hard to say what this album means
long term for a band with a Grammy for Suburbs in 2011 under their belt
already.
If you haven’t given your ears some
sweet sonic pleasures lately, I urge you to do so with Reflektor. I also urge
you to send your feedback to our facebook page, as I am curious about the
thoughts that everyone has on this eloquent departure from a band who has
consistently put out quality music.
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