Album Review | Arcade Fire – Everything Now

Arcade Fire - Love Music; Love Life

This journey of an album begins slowly and eases you into the main theme of ‘Everything Now’.

It has a certain Tame Impala style sound and a great intense build-up, which effectively shoots us into their single ‘Everything Now‘.

With its major and cheery piano riff and a compelling bass line which compliments the major guitar chords, Win Butler sings with emotion and imperfect vocals making it sound more honest as it’s less polished. The strings emotively add texture in the background, while the bass line is consistently effective in the chorus before the pleasant surprise of the introduction of pan pipes which add something different and interesting to the song. The irony of some of the emotive lyrics (“Daddy, how come you’re never around?”) potently contradicts happiness of the song. The choir singing along with the piano riff merges into the pan pipes which concludes the song well. ‘Everything Now’ portrays a message of modern life, we all want all the shit you don’t need but you can’t live without

Enter a new song ‘Signs of Life‘ which merges with the last. A foot-tapping beat with claps, brass and strings continues the album into Butler’s cool vocals with Queen style harmonies. This is a song to walk down the street to. It’s as if they’re saying the culture of today is full of the recycling of old fashions and no one is living life the way they truly want. The bass line builds the break to the chorus which almost sounds like the Shaft theme with the backing singers. The song goes on a tad too long, but it’s a decent follow-up to ‘Everything Now’.

It’s not long before your ears are hit with a decent, fuzzy and very 80’s starting riff. ‘Creature Comfort‘ has another underlying message of the need for fame, acceptance and self-loathing, as well as suicide, drugs, self harm and mental health. It’s another happy sounding song with sad lyrics and a catchy chorus. Musically it’s not bad, but the message makes up for it.

The chimes at the end of the last song lead into next track ‘Peter Pan‘ effectively, with its punching bass and drum beat creating an almost reggae rhythm. Overall, it’s pretty boring and is just an album filler for me.

However, ‘Chemistry‘ puts the album back on the right track. It’s toe tapping rhythm reminds me of The Beatles. Once the brass instruments and guitar stop, you can hear the intricacy of the bass line. It’s catchy and versatile chorus coupled with the rich sound of the brass instruments make this song a solid swinging rock song. Once the brass instruments and guitar cease, you can the intricacy of the bass line.

‘Chemistry’ syncs into ‘Infinite Content‘ which has more of an indie rock sound. The guitar almost sounds like Matt Followill’s (Kings of Leon) simple melodies over rock chords. The song continues the album theme of modern life with all these various things we all need to ‘survive’ in a modern world of infinite content. The track then suddenly merges into a slower version of the song, an almost country version which is very interesting and a pleasant surprise which worked perfectly.

The sound effects of checkout tills merge ‘Electric Blue‘ into a more pop style bass line, which brings us back to the 80’s sound with high vocals. The vocal, polyphonic harmonies create a rich texture while the wide range of sounds blending together works splendidly, the drums move from one ear to the other and the added xylophone sound is a treat to hear. Régine Chassagne’s vocals hit an unbelievable high note, making her sound like a choir of one voice. The polyphonic melodies compliment each other extremely well. Overall, a decent song, but nothing groundbreaking.

Another good bass line introduces ‘Good God Damn‘. The guitar riff is simple but effective like a decent rock riff should be. Again, it sounds like The Beatles with its catchy chorus, arpeggio guitar chords and solid harmonies. The quiet strings add more texture to the song with added flute and woodwind playing an interesting melody alongside the bass and guitar.

Crowd sounds introduce ‘Put Your Money On Me‘, another 80’s sounding song which is similar to Tame Impala again. It sounds like a theremin in the background alongside a good bass line and crisp vocals. The brass with polyphonic vocals have introduced this song into an eerie track full of interesting, unknown sounds to me.

Another merge into ‘We Don’t Deserve Love‘ with very soothing sounds making it very pleasant to listen to. It’s a love song with a pleasant barrage of various voices introduce a melancholy chorus. All these voices sing in unison in homophony during the chorus making it an original song that I just love.

Lastly, they return to the theme of modern culture. An orchestra plays the main riff of ‘Everything Now‘ which sounds beautiful. The contrast of electronic drums and traditional strings works well and then it suddenly stops to conclude this brilliant album.

This is a thoroughly enjoyable album that merges into one single, with a strong theme and a barrage of sounds and voices. Musically, it’s nothing too special, but the creativity and the various interesting noises and harmonies make it a rare find. It’s one whole journey masquerading as an album of songs.




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