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Burn the Neon Bible
Arcade Fire
Neon Bible
(Merge, 2007)
First off, I don’t hate Arcade Fire. They seem like good people, they believe in their music, and they pour considerable energy into live performances. All of that’s just fine by me. The problem is, they didn’t make a very compelling second album. What I do hate is what Neon Bible represents about us as listeners, how easily we’ve championed something so innocuous, full of pre-meditated emotion rather than the real thing. Among this album’s failures are the relentless sloganeering and the band’s need to turn every chord progression into the most important moment in my life. Like a night at the Phantom of the Opera or Les Miserables, everything here is overwrought. The heavy-handed delivery of songs like “Neon Bible” and “Black Mirror”: I’ll go as far as to call it cheesy. And that church organ! It’s used all over this record to suggest notions of grandiosity. Get that fuckin’ organ out of my ear. This isn’t Christmas mass at the Vatican; lay off that thing, go get a Farfisa Fast Five, and run it through a Fender Reverb.
Funeral (2004), by all accounts, was also a bit overwrought, but it sounds more authentic because it’s a bit rougher around the edges. Sure, Arcade Fire put countless hours into crafting that gem of a debut, but there’s honesty in the instrumentation and execution that is lacking on Neon Bible. Listen to the garage stomp of “Neighborhood #2 (Laika)” with those jangly guitars and overdriven backing vocals, or the loose, funky groove of “Haiti”, with its sexy, restrained vocals. So, whom should we shoot first, the producer or the band? Actually, the band produced this themselves so I guess we can only blame them for the over-the-top flourishes. Where quartets were once used to flesh out arrangements, it sounds as if they’re bringing in the whole orchestra.
Furthermore, some of these songs shouldn’t have made it to the point of production. The worst slogan-driving offense has to be a key line from “Black Wave/Bad Vibrations”: “Eating in the ghetto on a hundred dollar plate / Nothing ever lasts, that’s the way it’s gotta be.” Ironically that lyric says it all—it encapsulates the over-the-top irony that is the whole record—because, in a sense, Neon Bible does just that: it eats in the ghetto, attempts to bring humanity to us, but along the way the band brings their Prada outerwear to the party. The ghetto responds, “No thanks. Please leave now.” The dumbstruck, bourgeois hipsters respond: Give me more!
I repeat: I don’t hate this band. If they want to make boring and clichéd music, then fine, that’s okay. This is just one album in a potentially long and varied career, so I’ll be waiting for the follow-up. But for us to collectively call it one of 2007’s best is embarrassing. The indie bandwagon that latched onto this jalopy of a record astonished me: rave reviews out of the butt-cheeks of crack-smoking, trend-setting critics, little sweaty indie kids and soccer moms pumping their fists just ‘cause they wanna feel something, anything to battle the tribulations of upper-middle class life.
To be fair, there are some strong moments on Neon Bible: the epic sweep of “Ocean of Noise” with its well-placed piano and horns actually works, and the fast-paced crunch of “No Cars Go” renders an undeniable anthem. Yet, looking back at a number of 2007 follow-up albums—Of Montreal’s Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer, the National’s Boxer, and LCD Soundsystem’s Sound of Silver—I see maturity. Each of those bands took a step forward: they grew up, tried different ideas, and refined their tastes a bit. Kevin Barnes wrote his best unlikely pop hits; the National navigated their passionate indie growls with subtlety; and James Murphy, at times, moved beyond straight-up jams and into rock songwriting. In contrast, Neon Bible took a step back.
Consider a small New York band like Ravens and Chimes who possess a dramatic flair not unlike the Arcade Fire. Raven and Chimes’ Reichenbach Falls (2007) bursts with wonderful energy but never feels forced. They are epic without sounding like they are trying to be epic (take notes: Arcade Fire). Unfortunately, Neon Bible sounds like a move to cash in on the public’s sweet tooth for overstatement. For those who embrace the Neon Bible, you’ve missed the whole point. It’s like the hope and change that all of these politicians are talking about on the campaign trail. People forget that even if our beloved Obama storms the White House gates, the next four to eight years of our country’s future isn’t only in his hands: it’s our responsibility, too, and the choices we make—from the things we buy to the cars we drive—are as important as his policies. Likewise, when Arcade Fire delivers an average follow-up, it’s on us to realize such slights. Wake up, it’s 2008: take Neon Bible off your iPod and hope for a better tomorrow.
Watch: “Neon Bible” [at youtube.com]
27 Comments
Did your “Arcade Fire Backlash Timer” go off today? This is a load of rubbish. If you want to write a nice article about Raven and Chimes, why waste 5 paragraphs trashing Neon Bible a year after its release? If they’d used a Farfisa, you’d likely have trashed it for apeing Yo La Tengo. I’d rather learn more about R this slag about NB.
“Among this album’s failures are the relentless sloganeering and the band’s need to turn every chord progression into the most important moment in my life.”
Thank you! I have been searching for the perfect phrase to describe to people why I can’t listen to this album. You just provided it.
Totally, Mr. Perry.
You waited a year? Seriously?
douche.
Mr. Perry, you truly are a knob.
Do you hate the feeling of joy? Are you mad that the band has been creativly successful, and you just write reviews? Are you wearing a hat that resembles an ass? Do you actually like music?
While there are some really biting comments in this Ex Post Facto review, I think Perry is right on about a lot of this. That whole Ghetto thing the first time I heard it made me roll my eyes harder than I ever have before.
The true root of this grandiosity: Winn Butler’s Bible was born to run on the Boss’s fire.
*yawn*
I’m a huge fan of AF. Seeing their funeral tour in central park was monumental as far as rock concerts go from any era, regardless of how big a music snob you are. They created strong distinct energy and POOOF. Neon Bible does suck. It’s a shame. I can’t fool myself. I think that was it.
Chill out Klosterman. Your coke hook-up will be back in town soon enough.
Dave Fridmann didn’t produce Neon Bible. ? . ?.
Yes Doc, you are totally fucking right. I apologize for that error.
To set the record straight, this was a self-produced album. This important detail, however, shifts none of my opinions, and, in fact, leaves the band with no one to blame but themselves.
i agree about the chord progression thing, pretty funny. but just because you dont find the merits of this record doesnt mean other people are “crack-smoking, trend-setting critics” or “little sweaty indie kids” for appreciating it. “For those who embrace the Neon Bible, you’ve missed the whole point”. these are giant generalizations about what appreciating one record says about the listener. thats, frankly, ridiculous.
Well put, Andre. These responses prove exactly what you’re saying. Good or bad, why is this album so polarizing? Wacky instrumentation and 19th century costuming? Anyone remember Dead Can Dance? You kids are are a magic wand and a couple sips of mead away from a Renaissance Fair. I’m taking my Ramones records and going home; this party sucks.
Andre Perry: The Candidate for Change.
:)
You’ve got my vote!
Ok a year late fair enough but in that time you could have attended a gig and then you would see that they are special, also at the gigs thye had mirrors adn you could look into that mirror and see your a KNOB
This is poorly written.
“the band’s need to turn every chord progression into the most important moment in my life”
Isn’t that the point of music? It seems from this review as if you would you rather listen to second-rate pseudo-indie rock/pop for the rest of your life without acknowledging that at least SOME music in this over-commercialised day and age can take on a sense of meaning. My advice: get a job where your ignorance and pretention don’t make you look like a complete asshat.
PS: Don’t post on forums (see: arcadefire.net) when you’re not willing to back up your cowardly hit-and-run attempts.
you’re not helping your case much, podge.
enough with the “year late” stuff, people. The point of this section is to look back on stuff; semi-recent, but after the fact (ex post facto). It’s not late, it’s with the benefit of hindsight.
anyway, i think perry’s a little more hateful than need be. What’d you expect, anyway? I thought Funeral was overwrought, and so expected no less from this one. I eventually came to dig Funeral; this one’s been a luke warm affair the whole time.
What puts me over the edge into Perry’s camp is the fact that I did see them live on the Bible tour i’m looking at you, podge) and i gotta say, that was one hell of a load of overblown ridiculousness. One guy ran back forth drumming on a helmet on a pole, not for rhythm, just for show. Then they’re tossing instruments way up in the air; whatever. I looked in that mirror and saw a guy wanting his money back.
Some of us said the same about Born to Run, and to this day, I still have a hard time taking the record seriously. But that’s OK, it’s rock and roll – it shouldn’t be taken that seriously. Whenever I feel the Rock Critic rising up in me, I just turn up the volume and grab an air guitar.
There’s a couple of valid comments, but most of this seems unfounded or just personal opinion to me. It’s not really proved to any extent to sway any minds, just someone raving. If you want to hear something amazing, look for neon bible, elevator on youtube
Amen, brother! I saw them on their tour with LCD Soundsystem and the Arcade Fire’s show was a lot of bluster and running around without really turning out much effect. It’s just like 12 people “rocking” as hard as they could with their “serious faces” turned up to 11. Come one, someone crack a smile. Also, any band with more than 7 people in it should have a rule that at least half of the time at last one person shouldn’t be playing. These guys had every single person play every second of every song, which gave all of their songs the amorphous shape of a puddle of goo.
LCD Soundsystem was so much better it was a little embarrassing.
Andre, I commend you for articulating what I’ve been feeling about this band all along. It was disheartening to see them at the top of many year end best-of lists, kind of like when Crash won best picture a few years ago. They just aren’t very compelling and no amount of forced earnestness and intensity can mask or compensate for that.
I saw them on Austin City Limits and that one Napoleon Dynamite-looking dude spazzing out for no reason was really unnecessary.
Anonymous has it right.
I myself am not yet decided about this album.
But the thing about Arcade Fire is that they aren’t really just a rock group. That which you objected to–the grandiosity, the overwrought chord progression–thats just how they roll.
In other words you’re looking at their music the same way you look at any other indie band, when they arent.
The reason I adore their music so heartily is the effect it has of bringing out into the sensory open these simple little melodies as if they had been lingering in my subconscious unmatured.
Maybe the reason you feel theyre trying to make each chord progression the most important moment of your life is that it does make you feel that way. But you’d rather make some fallacious point about this album’s failings on the basis of their appeal to upper middle class people.
How about you leave the concert seats for those who actually appreciate them.