Eight months ago I horrified my most loyal readers when I spent three weeks on a song-by-song exploration of Arcade Fire’s Grammy-winning 2010 album The Suburbs.
I wanted to better understand what made the band such critical darlings, and I actually did emerge from that experiment with a much deeper appreciation of the craft that went into that album.
Now Arcade Fire is back with Reflektor, and once again the critics are aglow.
Don’t worry, Dana… I won’t be posting every song. Just one for now.
Reflektor is an ambitious record in an eye-rolling way. It is a double album, though each disc is relatively short. It leaps around between genres and sounds, dabbling in techno and disco and Caribbean rhythms as well as straight-up alternative rock.
And it’s about weighty, philosophical matters — principally how we connect in a world increasingly dominated by technology.
All that is fine, but my first reaction to the album leans toward boredom. It features a few excellent tracks, but far more feel like filler. Perhaps they are growers (most of The Suburbs was, after all) but for now I’m considering this a failed experiment.
That said, the title track is one of the best songs I’ve heard all year (it will show up in my year-end countdown, which starts next week) and today’s SOTD (‘Here Comes the Night Time’) is stellar as well.
This track is about the people of Haiti (where Arcade Fire recorded most of the album), and the hypocrisy of missionaries in the country. Musically, it owes a whole lot to Talking Heads as well as David Byrne’s solo work (I’d guess that the line “heaven’s a place” is a direct reference to the Talking Heads song ‘Heaven’). That can only be a good thing.
When the sun goes down
When the sun goes down, you head inside
Cause the lights don’t work
Yeah nothing works- they say you don’t mind
[Chorus]
But here comes the night time
Here comes the night time
Here comes the night time
[Verse 2]
And the missionaries
They tell us we will be left behind
Been left behind
A thousand times, a thousand times
If you want to be righteous
If you want to be righteous, get in line
Cause here comes the night time
[Chorus]
[Verse 3]
They say heaven’s a place
Yeah, heaven’s a place and they know where it is
But you know where it is?
It’s behind the gate, they won’t let you in
And when they hear the beat, coming from the street, they lock the door
But if there’s no music up in heaven, then what’s it for?
When I hear the beat, the spirit’s on me like a live-wire
A thousand horses running wild in a city on fire
It starts in your feet, then it goes to your head
And if you can’t feel it, then the rules are dead
And if you’re the judge, what is our crime?
Here comes the night time
Here comes the night time
Here comes the night time
[Chorus]
[Break]
Now the preachers they talk up on the satellite
If you’re looking for Hell, just try looking inside
[Chorus]
[Verse 4]
When you look in the sky, just try looking inside
God knows what you might find
When you look in the sky, just try looking inside
God knows what you might find
Here comes the night time
Meet Me In Montauk 
After the never-ending exploration of Arcade Fire’s last album, I reached the conclusion that the biggest reason I don’t warm up to this band’s music is that the lead singer’s voice does nothing for me. Voice means a lot to me, not just technical quality, and sometimes in spite of that, but rather character and tone are paramount.
So today’s song is another affirmation of the same. This guy’s voice just does nothing for me. He doesn’t annoy me like a Morrissey. He just bores me. Perhaps this song done by Byrne would work better for me. I suspect it would. But I just have no desire to spend my time listening to this band with.this lead singer.
I have tried to like Arcade Fire … I really have … I have their CD’s. As a Montrealer, as I am, it’s almost your duty to like this band. But I won’t lie … I just don’t get it. I recognize and appeciate that their music is different than most of the product available, but it just doesn’t grab me. The only song I’ve liked is “Keep The Car Running” and that’s only because it’s a great Springsteen song that he never wrote.