In some ways, this was an odd choice for a full album deep dive because I’m not a particularly big Arcade Fire fan (I’ve enjoyed a couple of their albums but not enough to spend much time with them).

But when The Suburbs was a surprise Album of the Year winner at the 2011 Grammys, it put it on my radar for a more in-depth dissection, one I finally got around to a couple of years later.

This wasn’t the most popular choice among my regular readers, with daily commenter Dana particularly unimpressed by the album. He predicted that I wouldn’t be listening to The Suburbs in 10 years, and I have to admit he was right. I don’t think I’ve played it in full more than twice since writing these blog entries.

Even so, this is an ambitious and thoughtful work that treats the album format as a cohesive work of art, something fewer and fewer artists were doing in 2010. It’s worth a deep dive, so here it is.

1. ‘The Suburbs’
2. ‘Ready to Start’
3. ‘Modern Man’
4. ‘Rococo’
5. ‘Empty Room’
6. ‘City with No Children’
7. ‘Half Light I’
8. ‘Half Light II (No Celebration)’
9. ‘Suburban War’
10. ‘Month of May’
11. ‘Wasted Hours’
12. ‘Deep Blue’
13. ‘We Used to Wait’
14. ‘Sprawl I (Flatland)’
15. ‘Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)’
16. The Suburbs (Continued)’