Any concept album worth its salt has at least one song that is broken into parts. Just ask Pink Floyd.
Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs has a couple of examples. The first is ‘Half Light,’ part one (or I) of which is today’s SOTD.
This is the most atmospheric track on the album so far, drowned in ambient synth-strings that sit higher in the mix than the vocals. And Win Butler takes a back seat for most of the song, letting his backing vocalists carry the tune.
This song sounds like something that would play during a poignant moment in a John Hughes movie. And reading the lyrics, that make a lot of sense.
I love the imagery of these kids wandering the streets of their neighborhood in the half light (which I interpret on the most literal level as dusk, though I’m sure there are metaphoric meanings as well).
As for the ocean in a shell, I read that as a symbol of the complex, interesting people holed up in their suburban homes.
Musically this song is pretty much all atmosphere, but lyrically it’s one of the most compelling on the album so far.
It will be interesting to see where things lead in part two.
We were too young
Now that night’s closing in
And in the half light
We run
Lock us up safe
And hide the key
But the night tears us loose
And in the half light
We’re free
Strange how the half light
Can make a place new
You can’t recognize me
And I can’t recognize you
We run through the streets
That we know so well
And the houses hide so much
But in the half light
None of us can tell
They hide the ocean in a shell
The ocean in a shell
Our heads are just houses
Without enough windows
You say you hear human voices
But they’re only echoes
They’re only echoes
They’re only echoes
Only Echoes
(We are not asleep, we are on the streets)
Meet Me In Montauk 
I do like the imagery in these lyrics, but again find the music wanting. Just too ethereal for my taste.