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a modest review from a modest man

the suburbs
The Arcade Fire – The Suburbs

The Arcade Fire’s third full length album was released on Tuesday, and it’s a delight. Those of us that caught their set at Bluesfest (for shame, Dan) got a nice preview of what to expect from this album, and leaks of dubious quality have been floating around for awhile, but it’s pretty awesome to finally have the complete album in hand.

Anyway, the album is great. The Arcade Fire are definitely one of my 5 favourite bands, and they could probably release an album of farts and I’d give it a 10/10. There was really no way that I was going to dislike this album, so take my glowing remarks with a grain of salt if you must. With that said, this is the album of the year to date (*SIGH* in my opinion, of course), and an excellent addition to the Arcade Fire catalog. I’m obviously still digesting it, but the songs seem a bit more stripped down than the songs from Funeral and Neon Bible (there aren’t any massive “Wake Up” or “Intervention” type songs, for example), but it still manages to maintain the Arcade Fire sound.

If there’s a complaint to be made about the Suburbs, it’s that it might be a bit too long (16 songs, 60+ mins). Most reviews I’ve read seem to suggest this, but there’s no consensus on what could or should be cut out. With no obvious duds, perhaps people’s attention spans are just too short for an album this long.

Early standout tracks are “Ready to Start”, “Rococo”, “We Used to Wait” and “Sprawl II”, but there’s probably another four or five songs that have presented themselves as potential eventual favourites.

Final Verdict: If you like The Arcade Fire at all, don’t free download the Suburbs, go buy it – it’s great, and they deserve your money.

Also, Saturday August 7th is National Mustard Day. Celebrate appropriately.

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