Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

ch-scene - Re: Arcade Fire. I'm not insane.

ch-scene AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: RTP-area local music and culture

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Baby Messy <bilboa AT baggins.con>
  • To: ch-scene AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: Arcade Fire. I'm not insane.
  • Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2007 15:49:15 -0500

Yeah. I didn't want to be one of those people who saw the Beatles in
1964 (not comparing bands, just my relative age) and bemoaned the end of
good music as we know it until I give it a shot. I figure they put their
best foot forward on SNL (hell, I would) and didn't get much out of it.
I liked their version of Guns of Brixton, but it'd be hard for The
Shaggs to fuck up that song. So I delved further. Meh. I'll try some
more, I guess.

I like warr.org. While I don't agree with everything they say (who
would?) I still find them fair and smart.

One would like to imagine a break-out band like this would have more
than one great album in them at the outset.






Chris Rossi wrote:
> The new one hasn't done much for me (yet?). Thing is, if you really
> want to know what all the fuss is about, you need to hear the first
> album, "Funeral". That's the reason people like them. If you still
> don't like them after that, then, yeah, I suppose it is just a matter of
> taste . . . .
>
> chris
>
>
>
> Baby Messy wrote:
>> I watched them on SNL the other week and thought..."this is it?...why
>> all the hype?" and I really thought I was missing something in my old
>> age. I mean, as soon as you heard Radiohead you KNEW, love it or hate
>> it, that there was something special there. So maybe I needed to dig
>> deeper, and through the magic of Youtube, etc. I tried. Lord I tried.
>>
>> My fave CD review cite, warr.org, reviewed them thusly:
>>
>> Arcade Fire, Neon Bible (2007)
>> I wanted to get this warning out as quickly as possible: this Montreal
>> indie septet is possibly the worst, most overhyped critics' fave band
>> I've ever heard. I mean, at least the guy from TV On The Radio can sing.
>> Lead "singer" Win Butler has no range or projection - he sounds like Lou
>> Reed without the accent - and he's probably the best thing about the
>> group. Pretension factor is through the roof with turgidly deep lyrics
>> (title track) and pompous orchestrations (the pseudo-Springsteen "Black
>> Wave, Bad Vibrations"). Meanwhile, musicianship is beneath the
>> floorboards, with rote chord progressions ("Keep The Car Running";
>> "Antichrist Television Blues") and plodding tempos ("Intervention"; "My
>> Body Is A Cage") - the band members play a zillion different
>> instruments, but find nothing interesting on any of them. The two
>> passable tunes are the typically overblown "No Cars Go" and the uptempo
>> Franz Ferdinand-style rocker "The Well & The Lighthouse": they're still
>> worthless melodically but at least have some energy. (DBW)
>>
>>
>> So whew. I'm not insane. Drinks on me!!!!
>> -- ch-scene: the list that mirrors alt.music.chapel-hill --
>> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/ch-scene
>
> -- ch-scene: the list that mirrors alt.music.chapel-hill --
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/ch-scene




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page