The Arcade Fire¶
415 words on Music
First came the Funeral… a bit late here in Europe but strangely fantastic anyway, even after our friends across the pond starting growing tired of it. Music carrying a wonderful mood. Kind of airy. But very solid as well. Also, music that I sometimes don’t want to listen to. Music that I enjoy a lot when I listen to it. And also music that I can play in the background when not actively listening to it. Music you can listen to silently before sleeping. But equally music that’ll blast you away when you crank up the volume.
It’s hard to pick a song from that record. As most of them are quite cool. And none of them is the rock hit type of thing. Most of the songs sound to me like they’d make brilliant sound tracks for a film. Or better even like they deserved short-film style music videos. I’m quite fond of the brilliantly titled Wake Up.
After liking that album I was happy to hear that their first EP, which at seven songs and 33 minutes could pass as an album by itself, has been reprinted and decided to get a copy. Curious to hear how they started off and what changed for the first proper album, I started listening. In comparison, the EP sounds a bit more experimental. The ‘unusual’ instruments can be heard more clearly than on Funeral and the songs are more distinct. Where the Funeral appears with an overall coherent soundscape, there is more variation on the EP and there are more ‘edges’.
While this is one of the few cases where I’d say that overall the later (and magical second album, if you wish) is better because it is more refined and softer, there remain remarkable songs on the EP like The Woodlands National Anthem or Headlights look like diamonds which are fantastic enough by themselves to get the whole EP.
The red lights mean you’re leaving.
the white ones mean returning.
Tell me how this story ends.
And I’ll keep them fires burning.
The headlights look like diamonds.
The taillights burn like coals.
Tell me how this story ends.
Before the fires go cold.
The countryside’s deserted.
There’s no one on the farms.
The suburbs all are sleepin’.
The earthquakes set off car alarms.
All after all now we aware.
All after all the time we share.
There’s so much fears of world,
hopes of world, tears of world.Headlights look like diamonds
