Best albums of 2010: #1 Arcade Fire “The suburbs”

I started this series counting down my favourite albums of 2010 back around mid-May and I thought at the time that I’d be wrapping it up in three to four months. Well, here we are six months later and I’m thinking I didn’t do to0 badly, finally getting to the number one spot, which, as you can see by the title, comes courtesy of Arcade Fire.

Given the amount of backlash the group has seen of late because of the non-musical antics of frontman Win Butler, I imagine there might be those out there who might sneer at this selection at the number one spot on this list. I myself had already started losing interest in the band, what with the diminishing returns on the string of albums after this one, but the sexual misconduct allegations hitting the news last year all but turned me off. Still, when putting together this list, I revisited “The suburbs” while trying to separate artist with art and quickly found myself getting caught up in it again. It was a near perfect album and deserved all the accolades that it garnered at the time.

I had been a fan of Montreal’s Arcade Fire since the release of 2004’s “Funeral”, back when they were pretty much considered by fans, critics, and musicians alike as the world’s most exciting new band. That debut album referenced the geek rock, post punk of Talking Heads or Violent Femmes but the size of their membership and the variety of instrumentation used added volumes to enormous levels. What really stood out for me, though, was their energy. Their music was all about energy, even despite the darkness and sadness that surrounded the recording of their debut album.

Seeing them perform live in 2005 in an opening slot for U2 only added to my love for Arcade Fire. They came onstage and played to the massive audience assembled at the local hockey arena as if they were playing at the tiniest of rock venues, as if they were the headliners, not the preamble to the world’s biggest rock band. Watching the group’s seven members swap instruments between songs and soaking in the ferocity with which they attacked each number afforded a rare live experience and caught the attention and won fans out of more than a few audience members who had before that night never heard of them. I then saw them twice more on different nights and different circumstances and that passion and energy hadn’t waned in the least and the same might be said of their recordings, even in spite of the evolution of their sound. But I might be getting carried away here. Let’s get back to “The suburbs”.

According to an article published in the NME back in August 2010, frontman Win Butler said that the album “is neither a love letter to, nor an indictment of, the suburbs – it’s a letter from the suburbs.” I don’t know about the rest of you folks that live in the suburbs as I do but this album doesn’t sound a lick like my neighbourhood. It’s like they had taken their idea and their memories of what it was like to live in suburbia and pushed that feeling into a post-apocalyptic world where everything is the same: emotionless, and wasting away.

It’s a concept album, of course, I don’t think these guys know how not to make a concept album and they definitely have the concept of the concept down right. There are sixteen songs in all, each varying in length, sound, and mood but the theme remains intact. And still, each song, with the exception of the final reprise perhaps, can be pulled from the group and it easily stands on its own merits, confidently straddling the wide gorge between art and pop. Sure, the lyrics are questionable but they are thought-provoking and are earnest in their message.

I think this mastery of mood in songcraft and the palpable energy makes “The suburbs” impossible to ignore. It should go down as the earliest classic of the twenty-tens and remain firmly planted near the top of the best of lists created by many of the important taste making music writers. I’m not including myself amongst these you understand, but I am a very big fan of this album. For me, it might even be preferable to “Funeral”… But that’s a whole other discussion.

In case you haven’t listened to the whole thing already, here are my three picks for you off the album worth listening to right now:

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“The suburbs”: “But by the time the first bombs fell, we were already bored.” The opening number and title track has something of a lounge singer vibe with Butler crooning in his own unique way while the drums and piano bang out a jaunty rhythm worthy of a 60s musical. It is a haunting premonition for the themes that run throughout the album and is echoed in a more deconstructed vein in the reprise that closes things out. The first time I heard this song was when I saw them  live and when I posted how this was my twelfth favourite tune of 2010, I wrote about how much more boisterous it sounded than when I got my hands on the album. It’s still Win ‘telling it like it is, pointing out points of interest, recounting childhood stories, and espousing dreams in a world that appears to be without hope’.

“City with no children”: “The summer that I broke my arm, I waited for your letter. I have no feeling for you now, now that I know you better.” The lyrics sound more nostalgic than post-apocalyptic but the latter is definitely what I lean more towards with this track and that’s probably thanks to the similarity in title to a certain 2006 sci-fi flick that starred Clive Owen. It’s got an erratically driving bass line, handclaps, and a chorus melody that practically begs you to join Win and his wife, Régine Chassagne, in a harmonizing singalong, totally uplifting and totally depressing. This could very well rival the next track as my very favourite Arcade Fire song.

“Sprawl II (Mountains beyond mountains)”: This was easily one of my favourite tracks of the year and indeed, hit number two when I counted down said list a few years ago. The song features Régine stepping out of her backup vocal role to take centre stage and dancing it up. The video sees her leaving her suburban home with a pair of headphones on and suburban folk doing typically suburban things, like hanging out in lawn chairs and watering the lawn, except they’re all wearing masks, some of them faceless. And all the while, Régine just sings and dances away any fear and loathing she might have. A little bit Blondie and a little bit Björk, a cathartic climax to the album and a track that foreshadowed the change in musical aesthetic that surfaced on “Reflektor”, their subsequent album.

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If you’ve stuck with me for the whole countdown, thanks for your attentions. If you missed any part of this series, here are the previous albums in this list:

10. Diamond Rings “Special affections”
9. Bedouin Soundclash “Light the horizon”
8. LCD Soundsystem “This is happening”
7. The Drums “The Drums”
6. The New Pornographers “Together”
5. Stars “The five ghosts”
4. The Radio Dept. “Clinging to a scheme”
3. The National “High violet”
2. Broken Bells “Broken Bells”

You can also check out my Best Albums page here if you’re interested in my other favourite albums lists.