There is nothing worse – nothing, I tell ya! – than starting a negative review with “I’ve tried, Artist X. I’ve really tried.” So I’m even gonna be pretend that I’ve tried to like “Arcade Fire”. But I have listened to them, quite closely in fact, at various points over the last years. Let’s talk about it.
“It’s really popular, so there must be something wrong with it” is of course in turn also a really popular stance. So there must be something wrong with it. I for one am not completely sold on the concept of the Big Thing. But I do like it, as long as there are other little things, or things that are Big in a more intimate way. I like that when Kanye West releases an album or the Coens have a new movie out many people are excited and talk about it. Do I always enjoy the things that end up being said about, say, “A Serious Man”? No, of course not. But I was the only one in a packed theatre that laughed at certain jokes in that movie, and that’s nice too.
So I heard that “Arcade Fire” were the big connectors, the uniters – The Only Band That Matters, after The Strokes just seemed to fizzle away and Radiohead lost themselves in clouds of noodling. Though I never liked those bands either. Some Indie Dude™ once said that The Strokes took the first 15 seconds of “Marquee Moon” and based their whole sound on it. That’s not a good thing though. And Radiohead just always seemed alienated as fuck, while at the same time incredibly privileged, and that’s not something I can take too well.
“Arcade Fire” however dealt with big human themes, I was told, in a really sincere way. Art about the human condition, yes, and very specific parts of that condition. Parts that I care about deeply, even if I didn’t know it at the time. “Funeral”, their first album, was created under the spectre of older relatives of various band members dying, and dealt with those things in a way that was honest and human and ultimately hopeful. Again: so I was told.
So I listened. And listened. And couldn’t find anything. Not just sonically, but philosophically. When people say a work of art deals with grief they mostly mean is that it deals with closure. But fuck closure. Closure is not a thing that exists when it comes to these matters. At least that’s not my experience, and the experience of many people I know.
It’s the ethos that I find promoted in “Funeral” however. Does that mean that Win Butler, the head of the band, is disingenuous? I don’t think so. Other people listen to the album and find themselves, find their own experiences and feeling both encapsulated and deepened. That’s a beautiful thing.
“Neon Bible” and “The Suburbs” were big statements, too – not simply read but intended as such, and that’s a huge difference – on the dying Pax Americana and becoming a true adult, including having kinds, respectively. Like almost any big statement of this kind they fall flat. There’s not that much there – certainly not enough to justify the grandiosity.
Most of which seems to come from Win Butler. Many people tell me that guy’s a total asshole. Not “difficult to work with”, but somebody who goes out of his way to be a dick to people. And not in a way that seems to suggest a troubled soul either. Just an asshole. I don’t know if that is true though. (I’ve often thought that Butler, should he ever move into acting, would be a perfect Max Aue. Unfair and mean, of guess, but still.)
I’m not in a position to talk about the music either – there are sounds and structures of sounds that I like, that do something to and for me, and “Arcade Fire” doesn’t deliver them. That’s not their fault, and not mine. Sasha Frere-Jones said that “Arcade Fire” were a direct result of a new sonic segregation in Indie music. I don’t know if that is important in this discussion though. (I do like “TV on the Radio” a lot though. I’ve been told they are an Indie band, too.)
While I’m writing this the band is in Berlin, playing a (secret?) gig, to promote their new album. A more dance-oriented affair, rhythmic even. (“We just tried to make Régine dance” Butler said about the album’s creation, referring to his wife. They do sound like horrible people, don’t they.) There’s been some controversy because Butler told fans to attend all dolled up, in costumes even – to, as Butler said it, help the male attendees get laid. It’s not a dress code, they insist, more of a dress recommendation, to wear suits. People also wear suits to funerals, of course. Maybe that’s the key?