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Arcade Fire: Reflektor - Album Review
Indie | Tuesday 29th October 2013 | Cristina
There is an immediacy to the tracks on this LP. They have hit the nail on the head in a way that they connect, all at once, to intellect, sexuality and emotion, stirring the listener in all the right ways and finding a relevance which is new for Arcade Fire. Arguably, Arcade Fire will never beat the raw, undeniable power of Funeral but in this LP they have come, once again, to a remarkable sound which channels the zeitgeist with ingenuity. The key to Reflektor’s success is the simplicity and clarity of its mission statement – it is art and pop via guitars and aims for little else. One feels that at times the LP would have benefitted from slightly less convoluted lyricism to add to this sense of clarity. However, whilst some lyrics seem stilted and not quite natural, this suggests the potential of the band to tackle wider themes in the future with more lucidity - an exciting prospect to be sure.
The title track opens the album well. With a French verse, a heavy groove, ethnic drums, and retro ticks including a lovely use of the word ‘down’, the band prove they still understand exactly what music needs to do to push boundaries right now. Postmodern, addictive and more significant with each listen, the track sets a good standard for the others. Speaking of the ‘reflective age’ and finding ways to enter is savvy – appropriately self-reflexive, vague and suggestive. The new appropriation of brass into the group’s arsenal is introduced in ‘Reflektor’ and it’s a thrill, generating a refreshing maturity and defying guitar music to look to other genres to find its place in today’s music scene.
From the moment the bass of ‘We Exist’ enters, we’re plunged into a bygone era of rock. Or rather - sophisticated, intelligent, danceable rock which sometimes feels like an extinct genre. Sounding more like some of the most important bands of the 80s than anything from their previous album, it is one of the songs from the LP which most brazenly exhibits the influence of David Bowie’s most recent work. Butler’s strained and strung-out vocals are beginning to recall those of Robert Smith in some of the Cure’s best work, an exciting development testament to his progress as a vocalist. Wonderfully short and sweet, ‘Flashbulb Eyes’, with its arty percussion, sounds more like Talking Heads than anything Arcade Fire have previously produced.
In ‘Normal Person’, Arcade Fire penned some of the best lyrics in recent years. For starters – “Do you like rock and roll music? ‘Cos I don’t know if I do”. Then - “When they get excited, they try to hide it, look at those normals go”. This is also true of ‘You Already Know’ – “Please stop wondering why you feel so bad when you already know”. They channel truly old school notions of rock and roll and reap the cathartic benefits of not lyrically fannying around. Murphy’s production shines in ‘Afterlife’, arguably the best song on the LP. His production is a little too intrusive in places and could’ve done with allowing the vocals to be a little more confrontational. In ‘Porno’ it should’ve stepped back to allow what is perhaps the album’s defining lyric to be heard plainly - “Little boys with their porno – this is their world, where can we go?”.
Reflektor will not be for everyone, in that it’s a new direction for a band which started off with a very particular sound. The album comes as a relief to me after Suburbs, which was commendable but smacked ever so slightly of a tentative transition period for a band balancing already on the edge of their A game. Without lacking the dissatisfaction which has always driven the band’s social commentary, the LP doesn’t take on quite as much as earlier albums, avoiding the trap it could’ve easily fallen into. The result of focusing in on more specific ideas is a product allowed to breathe and grow in one’s mind. Now, a sharper focus yet, mostly in the lyrics department, is what would push Arcade Fire’s work up to the next level. It would serve to shine a brighter light on the important concepts they’re’ selling and pull away the veil sometimes obscuring their musical talent.
The perfect amalgamation of pop and poetry which makes for an unforgettable emotional sucker punch is achieved fleetingly here but is never quite the crystallized perfection of ‘Wake Up’ or ‘Keep the Car Running’. However, this is a more subdued effort and that’s fair play for a band only at the beginning of their career. Despite that, it does contain a few of the group’s greatest songs to date. Vocals are fresh, with Butler and Chassagne twisting their voices into unexpected shapes. Musical ideas are mysterious and inviting, invoking other places and other times. At the end of day, the sentiment left by the LP is one of triumph - praise the lord that indie sounds like Arcade Fire again.
Cristina Trujillo | @cristinaxt | http://liacasino.blogspot.co.uk/
