09 August 2010

The Arcade Fire – The Suburbs



I'm thinking of emailing Win Butler to recommend that he include the following text in the liner notes of his band's third album.

How To Properly Experience 'The Suburbs'

Hello - thank you for buying our new album 'The Suburbs' ! We are extremely proud of this record and want you to experience it fully. Hence before playing the album can you please take the following steps.

1. Find a road map; a pair of hiking boots; and an extremely large boulder.
2. Load the boulder into the back of your car and find the nearest mountain on the map.
3. Drive to the mountain.
4. Put on the hiking boots and unload the boulder.
5. Begin pushing the boulder up the mountain.
6. Don't stop. Ever.

Thank you!

The Arcade Fire

--

Seriously! It's a nice album but the band needs to lighten up. They risk doing themselves and their audience serious damage otherwise. Take this line from Nick Hornby's High Fidelity:

'What came first, the music or the misery? People worry about kids playing with guns, or watching violent videos, that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands, literally thousands of songs about heartbreak, rejection, pain, misery and loss. Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?'

I can't answer that question – but either way The Arcade Fire aren't helping.