And so we come to the end of my three-week exploration of Arcade Fire’s Grammy-winning The Suburbs. Dana, you can breathe easy once again (until you see what I serve up next… you might be begging for a little Arcade Fire a week from now!).

Like many concept albums, The Suburbs ends with a short coda that echoes the album’s beginning. That must be written in a concept album handbook somewhere.

As short as this song is, it does contain a pretty powerful sentiment. If I could have back all the time that I wasted, I’d love to waste it again. That’s a lovely way to look at our misspent youth.

I decided to examine this album so closely to determine if it’s worthy of all the critical acclaim and awards lavished on it. I know I’m completely at odds with my most frequent reader on this one, because I definitely think it is.

Not only does the record pack a real thematic punch, it is interesting and evocative musically. It is full of both ideas and emotion.

Mostly I like the fact that this band is still conceiving its music in the full-length album format, iTunes singles be damned. That gives me hope for the future of the album as an art form.

Keep reading:
Return to my track-by-track assessment of The Suburbs