ALBUM REVIEW; ARCADE FIRE- NEON BIBLE (NOT PRINTED IN CHRONICLE)

Arcade Fire- Neon Bible
Merge Records
3.5/5

Montreal’s Arcade Fire has taken on a new enemy: everyone else. The debut, Funeral, tackled topics such as loss, introspection and the death of a loved one. This time around, on Neon Bible, the lyrics are just as bitter, but the blame is placed squarely on society.

Brashly sung lyrics such as, "Don't wanna live in America no more" define the sentiments of this album. Win Butler blasts all the trappings of a luxurious life in this Western world of ours. He takes shots at consumerism, commercialism, religion, government, reality television and MTV.

By looking outward, the music also takes on a different role. Arcade Fire has now learned to channel their music into a tool of malevolence and bitterness.

The songs now build and release, driven mostly by guitar and drums, whereas Funeral would climax over epic soundscapes of piano and strings. This is not to say that the strings and keyboards are gone, but they are now used more economically, for a completely different approach.

On the track "(Antichrist Television Blues)" the band channels Bruce Springsteen better than the Killers ever could, this could be the sonic "Born to Run,” but a lyrical counterpart to “Let Down” from Radiohead.

“No Cars Go,” a reprise from the eponymous debut EP, would be an ideal album closer, flourishes and all, but the band wanted to have its cake and eat it too, with “My Body is a Cage.”

“Cars” shows a glimmer of hope even after all the bitterness, but the band chose to revel in its own depression over the world surrounding it.

“What have you done to me?” Win Butler asks, almost pleading to the listener. The real question is, why are they telling us something that’s been said so often already? This, of course, is left unanswered.