“Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)” from Funeral
As the first track of Funeral, “Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)” serves as a thematic mission statement for the album and maybe even the band. It’s also a perfect summation of Arcade Fire’s early career, with its soaring melody, meticulously arranged orchestration and heart-on-the-sleeve lyrics. “If my parents are crying/ Then I’ll dig a tunnel/ From my window to yours,” cries guitarist and singer Win Butler, singing as if his life depended on it. In terms of production, “Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)” is triumphant in just how busy and layered it is, in a way that invokes Phil Spector and his famous wall-of-sound approach: guitars crunch and dissolve into noise, pianos tinkle, Butler’s voice grows distorted as it sits atop the dense mix. This may not necessarily be Arcade Fire’s best song ever, but it’s an early example of the band firing on all cylinders.
“(Antichrist Television Blues)” from Neon Bible
Compared to Funeral, Neon Bible is a somewhat mixed bag. It tries to tread over similar ground but never achieves the same level of success. “(Antichrist Television Blues)” is somewhat of an outlier on the album, which is bogged down by an obsession with the banalities of death and darkness. This song, instead, is upbeat and devoid of bombast. The band’s trademark sonic touches are still there — the swelling strings, the soft piano, the driving punk rock drums, Butler’s whine — but “(Antichrist Television Blues)” is kind of a wily joke. “I don’t wanna work in a building downtown/ No I don’t wanna work in a building downtown/ I don’t know what I’m gonna do/ Cause the planes keep crashing always two by two,” he sings like a disgruntled businessman. If only all of Neon Bible were as smirkingly self-aware as this track.
“Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)” from The Suburbs
While The Suburbs still contains traces of vintage Arcade Fire, the record is a turning point of sorts for the way it hints at the sound that is omnipresent on Reflektor: ’80s disco. Nowhere is this better displayed than on “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains),” sung by multi-instrumentalist and unequivocal band MVP Régine Chassagne. Chassagne, sticking to the theme of the album, focuses her melancholic lyrics on living in and wanting to leave the suburbs. “Sometimes I wonder if the world’s so small/ That we can never get away from the sprawl,” she cries, as if she’s trapped forever. Underneath her vocals, drummer Jeremy Gara goes for a New Order shuffle rather than an E Street Band drive, while the strings are pushed to the back of the mix in favor of woozy synthesizers.
“We Exist” from Reflektor
“We Exist” is “Billie Jean” reincarnated, but in a way that feels more like a mark of admiration for Michael Jackson than outright pastiche. If there’s a common thread for what’s been released so far on Reflektor — the influence of producer and former LCD Soundsystem mastermind James Murphy — it’s a love of ’80s pop. However, even while channeling Michael Jackson’s spirit, there’s something distinct about “We Exist.” It may be utterly emulative on paper with its slinky beat and fuzzy synths, but like “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains),” “(Antichrist Television Blues)” and “Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels),” it is distinctly Arcade Fire, the band’s trademark sound having evolved from a niche idea — symphonic rock that’s anthemic and arena-ready — to something all-encompassing. Anything and everything is fair game now.
