The most upbeat track musically (so far) on Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs is also the most depressing lyrically. This album is definitely darker than I expected.
‘Empty Room’ is brash and loud (a little too brash and too loud for my taste) but the mindset it depicts is one of utter loneliness. What a sad image… saying somebody’s name in an empty room.
‘Rococo’ jumps right from the “modern man” of the previous track to the “modern kids” who use “great big words that they don’t understand.”
This song is a rather vicious dissection of hipsters (a popular target based on my experience reading web comment boards). Butler seems to be taking down the same people who looked down on his commercial aspirations in ‘Ready to Start.’
The third song on The Suburbs picks up where its predecessor left off. If ‘Ready to Start’ depicted a young man stepping into adulthood, ‘Modern Man’ gives us the depressing result of that move.
Win Butler sums up the existential malaise of modern man with one powerful phrase: “In line for a number but you don’t understand.” I picture waiting at some cosmic version of the Publix deli for your turn to come. Is the number a paycheck? A ticket to the afterlife? A symbol of everything we want in life but never achieve?
Track two of Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs, ‘Ready to Start,’ picks up the tempo after the ramshackle opening track. This is the anthemic rock sound I most associate with the band.
‘Ready to Start’ seems to be about commercialism vs. purity, though lead songwriter and vocalist Win Butler doesn’t necessarily make the obvious choice when taking sides. Is this an apology by an indie band for seeking (and finding) mainstream success?
I’ve done two full-album series on the blog — for Ben Folds Five’s debut album and Frank Sinatra’s Watertown — and I’ve wanted to try it again for awhile.
The challenge is finding an album worthy of the attention that I haven’t already picked clean through other Song of the Day posts. Paul Simon’s Graceland, for example, is certainly worthy of the treatment but I’ve posted more than half of its tracks individually over the years.
And I take this no-repeat thing seriously. It’s my one and only rule.
Meet Me In Montauk 