Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Who's gonna reset the bones?, March 6, 2007
Personally, I was terrified as I waited for the Arcade Fire's second album -- so many bands have made exquisite first albums, only to disappoint with the second.
But there are few missteps in the amazing "Neon Bible," which tries out a new sound for the Montreal band -- it sounds darker, eerier, and thoroughly exquisite. They take the chamberpop sound to a stormy cliffside over the ocean.
It opens with steady acoustic guitar, and a swell of windy synth that sounds like waves crashing on the rocks. "I will walk down to the ocean/After waking from the nightmare/No moon, no pale reflection/Black mirror, black mirror," Win Butler murmurs over a rising tide of clashing piano.
They slip into the shimmering rock'n'roll of "Keep The Car Running," which cascades down into a beautiful folky tune wrapped in synth. The songs that follow continue this feeling: the quietly taut title track, ghostly experimental, transcendent little guitar-piano ballads, soaring organ pop, and even a sparkling, catchy indiepop tune or two.
The Arcade Fire obviously took their time crafting this album, and making all the kind of intelligent rock people expect from them. But the sound is entirely different -- it's darker and stranger than its predecessor, as well as sounding a bit more processed.
Granted, I wasn't crazy about the pipe-organ blues of "Intervention." However, the other songs are sheer brilliance musically -- a beautiful thunderstorm of instrumentation, with the sound of a sonic religious experience. Just listen to the crescendo of soaring voices, drums, horns and strings at the end of "No Cars Go."
As for the instrumentation, it's packed in dense, shifting layers. Flexible guitars, clashing piano, tinkling xylophone, accordion, hurdy-gurdy, bells, dark drumming, strings and samples. The keyboard is the finishing touch, giving everything an otherworldly sound.
As if the music weren't powerful enough, we're given Win Butler's wailing vocals, often backed by one or more soaring female voices. No wonder he sounds so depressed -- the lyrics are full of bombs, flight from hostile countries, and the sorrow of living in interesting times. "Every night my dreams the same/Same old city with a different name/Theyre not coming to take me away/I dont know why but I know I cant stay..."
The Arcade Fire pour out a powerful, exquisite second album in "Neon Bible," one of the most compellingly beautiful albums this year.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Turn of the Century Trilogy--Part Three, April 2, 2007
Although I thought Arcade Fire's previous album, "Funeral," dragged a bit in places ("Crown of Love," "In the Backseat") and suffered from some tempo changes that sounded forced, it contained some of the most heartfelt songs I had heard by anybody in a long time, especially "Neighborhood #1" and "Rebellion (Lies)." This was clearly a band that was a cut above almost everyone else, and I eagerly awaited their follow-up. I'm happy to report that "Neon Bible" grabbed me immediately, and hasn't let me go. The Bowie/Byrne/U2/Springsteen comparisons are all very apt, but the songwriting is strong enough to give this band an identity all its own.
For me, "Neon Bible" is part three of an accidental trilogy, in which part one was Radiohead's "OK Computer" and part two was Wilco's "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot." In the distant future, these three albums will tell people a lot about what the end of the 20th century, and the beginning of the 21st, felt like for those who lived it. "OK Computer" looked back on the ghosts of the 20th century (who mostly take the form of space aliens) and "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" captured that claustrophobic moment right around the time of the 2001 terrorist attacks, which it eerily foreshadowed with its "twin towers" album cover and a song called "Ashes of American Flags." (The album was slated to be released on September 11th, but delayed due to problems with the record company.)
And now we have "Neon Bible," which looks straight ahead into the murk of the 21st century. The cover art, with its depictions of children on a stage playing trumpets and reading from big, important-looking books, captures the feeling perfectly: Collectively, we are like those children, making grand gestures but not really knowing what we are doing. Yes, that includes you, Mr. President. The album has been criticized by many for lyrics that they claim are too obvious and music that is too grandiose for its own good, but we need an album like this once in awhile. We need musicians who don't always hide their feelings behind wordplay (which is so often a smokescreen for not having anything to say anyway). Win Butler walks a fine line here, with lyrics that spell out the major themes of the album but still provide plenty of subtlety and mystery for those who care to look for it.
The songs themselves are outstanding from start to finish. The opener, "Black Mirror," is all doom and gloom, set to a thumping beat. Win Butler sounds like a crazed preacher who is calling for damnation to rain down upon us all, because maybe we deserve it. But the mood lightens with the second song, "Keep the Car Running," and from then on, the album alternates darkness and light in a manner that is reminiscent of Love's "Forever Changes." "Antichrist Television Blues" completely lives up to its title, and "Intervention" is another Big Statement that does not disappoint. A more subtle favorite is "The Well and the Lighthouse," which is sort of a parable set to a beat that is like a speeded-up version of "Black Mirror," but this time moving toward a much more hopeful conclusion.
Many listeners will hear "Neon Bible" as a tremendous downer, but then, there are those who say the same thing about Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon." Largely it's just a matter of taste whether you like these albums or not, and that's okay. Although they have little in common musically, they are similar in a way. The beauty of the music overcomes the angst expressed in the lyrics, and the end result is exhilarating, and yes, even hopeful. The children pictured in the "Neon Bible" CD booklet may not know what they are doing, but they are still children. It's not too late for them to be saved.
[Note: I have the "deluxe packaging" version of this disc. It comes in a little box that has a pretty cool hologram on the cover, in which the pages of the book appear to turn as you look at it from different angles. Inside, there is a lyric booklet with the pictures I've mentioned, which is probably also contained in the standard version of the CD. There are also a pair of little flip books, one of which depicts a book that is flipping pages (kind of ironic for a flip book, now that I think of it), while the other depicts the synchronized swimmers from the CD booklet splashing in the water. Honestly, I don't see the point of the flip books, but if you want the hologram, the deluxe version may be worth the higher price.]
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52 of 69 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Don't buy the special edition!, March 20, 2007
Neon Bible is an OK album, not nearly as good as Funeral and the band drifts into poppy Springsteen esque musings that lack the depth and intensity on Funeral. Neon Bible is OK, I would have given it three stars but this "special edition" is a complete rip off. I expected some sort of real nuance into explaining the band more. Instead you get two mini-flip books that are composed of photos the band orchestrated in order to make some lame animated still-photo junket. Very, VERY self indulgent and offers nothing special or really extra to fans. A lame hook to get people to buy this thing. I am an impulse buyer, no one but myself to blame utlimately for falling for this con job in packaging. But the band should be ashamed of tricking fans into buying this. Music is OK if you're into Arcade Fire, but this special edition is inexcusable, no extra songs, nothing really extra at all or special, unless you're into stop-action photographic animation and in the day of the internet and hi-def TV, this is laughable. Buy the regular edition, not being ripped off will allow you to enjoy this album more.
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