Some of the Most Incredibly Elaborate Two-Chord Songs I've Ever Heard

Disclaimer: Those looking for a brief description of the album will find what their looking for in the "Review Body" section. The section titled "Track Reviews" is meant only for those who want to read detailed descriptions of the songs, and they do not constitute the essence of this review. Lastly and most importantly, this review is probably not written by the point of view of an Arcade Fire fan.)

Overall Score: 4/5
Best song: “Black Wave / Bad Vibrations”
Worst song: “(Antichrist Television Blues)”

Review Body:

Call it what you want: A sophomore slump, trying too hard, lucky the first time around, or they just weren't sad any longer; the fact is that Neon Bible isn't even close to what Funeral was. This is a substantial disappointment for me, actually. The one thing I was impressed with the most in their debut were harmonies, but these songs are two- or three-chord for the most part. Grrr! I even checked a guitar tab Web site to confirm my suspicions. Why did they have to change the one thing I liked about them the most? And now, their songwriting standards are less impressive than T. Rex's.

That didn't mean they weren't trying hard. In fact, the sheer effort they put into this thing was the one thing that kept this at a rather high rating. They actually put all the money they earned from Funeral and the tours to good use, and they bought a defunct church in Quebec and converted it into their own recording studio. The best thing about owning your own music studio, as Kate Bush would attest, is that you get all the time you would ever want to record and mix your songs. Believe me, they put so much work into this that it's overwhelming. The full sounds of the strings, pipe organs, horns, woodwinds, vibraphones, sound effects, and indescribable synthesizers are so lush and elaborate that it would have flabbergasted even Jeff Lynne. If Arcade Fire's only goal in this was out-ELO ELO, then they've succeeded massively! And yet, very little of this seemed too overblown. That's quite an accomplishment. Jeff Lynne, of course, knew better than to write boring songs lacking even basic choruses, but I'll be buggered if this album doesn't contain some of the most mightiest orchestration standards I've ever heard anywhere.

“Black Mirror” might be a two-chord song, but based on the instrumentation alone, I couldn't see fit to give it anything less than an A-. I mean, it seriously sounds like a Tchaikovsky ballad was trapped up somewhere beneath all that lushness and was trying to escape. Of course, it's only that repetitive drum beat that keeps it rock 'n' roll. And thank goodness for the steady drumbeat, too, because these songs would be nowhere without it. The follow-up song “Keep the Car Running,” again, has utterly FANTASTIC instrumentation, but it's unfortunately so melodically and harmonically simple. Geez, I wonder if it's just a coincidence that Win Butler's singing on that song in particular reminded me so much of Bruce Springsteen in Born in the USA? Seriously, listen to “Dancing in the Dark” and then listen to “Keep the Car Running.” Oh, CRAP!

Forget what I said about harmonies for one paragraph while I tell you about the only real exception to that rule. The multi-part suite “Black Wave / Bad Vibrations” is close to an evil-dark masterpiece. I don't know if it was just suggestion from the song title, but it does sound like an evil “Good Vibrations.” Particularly, the vague Beach-Boy-isms in the first part of the song amidst a quirky, dissonant, and almost synth-pop groove. Chassagne brassy vocals sound like a squawking bird sometimes, but they're weird and turn that experience into something a little more haunting and surreal. The second part isn't nearly as weird, but they way they orchestrated it, it sounds like the apocalypse. It's loud, it's thunderous, it's dramatic. (It's thunderous, in part, because they literally inject thunder sound effects in it!) As they would say in French, c'est tres bien!

They let a super dark pipe-organ, that presumably came from the church they bought, take the center stage for “Intervention” and “My Body in a Cage.” I do admit I love the sound of a pipe organ, and that can be an excellent instrument in the context of a pop composition! (Of course, I know a number of people who are absolutely horrified to hear a pipe organ in pop-rock... In fact, they probably wouldn't even call what Arcade Fire do pop-rock. ......Well, it ain't classical music!!!) But I like me some pipe-organ! Once again, those songs might not be such impressive compositions, but they sure do sound nice and dark.

They redid a song, “No Cars Go,” from their self-titled LP, naturally with as much lush instrumentation that they could pack into it. It's a slightly more dramatic and bracing song than most of these others. Despite that being pre-Funeral, it doesn't exactly have the harmonic brilliance of songs like “Neighborhood #3 (Power Out),” or “In the Backseat.” Hmm... I'm suspecting that Arcade Fire will never again write songs quite like that. That said, they're still certainly still a band worth following just because I don't see many bands putting so much effort in their arrangements. But it's definitely not a good sign that they forgot how to write compelling songs already.

Track Reviews:

Black Mirror A-
I think thing I'm always going to like about these guys is their ability to completely DROWN OUT their songs without making them sound like hokey crap. This is a pop-rock song, of course, but that full scale orchestration they have seeping from behind those drums and rhythm guitars sound like they want to start playing in a Tchaikovsky ballet or something. (Oh, maybe they're just taking hints from ELO?) This is quite a bombastic song, with some impressively elaborate instrumentation! It was quite an ordeal, and they obviously had to try pretty hard from the get-go to follow up that famous Funeral album that caused such a splash. This is impressive indeed, and it's fun to listen to. I do have a complaint, though: this is basically a two-chord song. (Well... according to a guitar-tab website, they snuck a few other chords in there.) What happened to those glorious harmonies I remember from the debut??

Keep the Car Running B+
Again, the instrumentation is very elaborate. I like that they base these songs on very accessible boom-thwack, boom-thwack drum beats but they layer their songs with all sort of sounds. The strings are dark and heavy, the rhythm guitars are crunchy, the synthesizers are crispy, and they find opportune times to bring in sound effects. The drum sound even changes throughout. It's more plain at the beginning, but they incorporate hand-claps by the end. It's all very fun to listen to. But I have to make the same complaint as I did on the previous song: WHERE ARE YOUR CHORDS? These are boring. The vocal melody ain't that good, either. ...Still, this is fun to listen to.

Neon Bible B-
This is a little shakier. The sounds aren't very lushly layered, and the drum beat is a bit disconnected. I sort think I know where they were going with this. It's “artsy,” you see, and it's interesting enough to work in that respect. I guess. There's a very light acoustic guitar rhythm here, almost in a bluegrass way, as well as some pulsating fiddles. The drum machine sound is sparse and weird. The extremely simple melody and lack of interesting chords tends to keep this thing a bit ... er ... forgettable.

Intervention A-
I like that dark organ! It's playing some slightly more interesting chords, but it's still nowhere near as arresting as the chord sequences from their debut! I swear, if these songs didn't have good rhythms, I would hate all them all. But, as you can tell from the song rating, I don't hate this song. I like it! And it's not just the good rhythm that's keeping this above water; its their lush-as-all-hell instrumentation! They bring in other elaborate instruments such as glockenspiels, huge strings and Regine Chassagne's vocals overdubbed so much that it sounds like a choir. Really, this would make even Brian Wilson pee his pants.

Black Wave / Bad Vibrations A
Speaking of Brian Wilson, I think describing this as the evil “Good Vibrations” isn't too off-target. It's a multi-part suite just like his song, but it's very dark and evil sounding. It starts out sounding a like an '80s synth-pop song gone wrong with a quirky, dissonant groove. The dark strings and synthesizers give it a weird, almost gothic texture. (And notice those “Barbara Ann” style vocal harmonies deeply in the background.”) This first section is crazy enough to earn an A+. The second part isn't as quirky, so I don't like it as much! But it's still very loud and elaborate. The main vocal melody isn't that impressive, but I like those high-pitched back-up vocals sounding very dramatic. Gosh, they even got their guitars to sound like thunder! (Or maybe that's just a thunder sound effect.)

Ocean of Noise B+
Really, I can't express enough at how freaking well these songs are produced. They're LUSH and WIERD and they keep these songs sounding so interesting. It starts out rather quietly with a more subdued drum beat, but they still manage to work in a mandolin-like synthesizer, echoey sound effects, strings, pianos... all sorts of sounds that wouldn't be able to describe even if I wanted to. By the end, the drums get louder and they layer even more sound on top of it, including a chorus of Spanish-sounding horns. Again, I would probably hate these songs if they weren't so elaborately produced... The melody isn't very interesting unfortunately. Vocal hooks would've made this song great, surely.

The Well and the Lighthouse B+
Bring back the strong drum beats—that's what I say! And what's this instrumentation like? It's very lush! It's nothing that we haven't heard before in this album yet, but if you were enjoying their insane lushness, then you'll undoubtedly enjoy this just as much. They give us a surprise midway through, introducing a new groove. Cool! I like how they fade it out with a mystical, cinematic string sound. Again, I really like how they're arranging these songs. It's just a shame they couldn't have come up with better melodies...

(Antichrist Television Blues) B-
This is where it's all starting to get boring. This isn't quite as grandiose as the previous songs, but the lush instrumentals combined with the regular drum-beats get old after awhile. The melodies continue to be very ho-hum, and the harmonies are still nowhere near as interesting as they were on his debut. Butler's lead vocals are sort of fun, though, sounding like he was pretending to sing lead vocals on Springsteen's Born in the USA or something. Hm. I would certainly be more impressed with this if it didn't sound like a weaker version of everything else that happened to appear on this album. The instrumentation is a tad more sparse here, but I still like the arrangements.

Windowsill B+
Yeah, I'm definitely tired of this album right now, but “objectively” this is just about as well-polished and impressively produced as the opening songs. Again, this song is based on a very regular drum beat with all sorts of intricate instrumentation layered on top of everything! The strings! The acoustic guitars! The horns! The only main difference is that instead of it being one huge EXPLOSION, it tends to keeps on stopping and building up multiple, tiny explosions. Really, this is very well produced. But why did they have to give up writing songs with more substance for all this elaborate show? Did they forget that we like good tunes, too? Or did they think that nobody really paid attention to harmonies? I PAY ATTENTION TO HARMONIES!!!!

No Cars Go A-
This was originally recorded for their 2002 eponymous EP, and they rerecorded it for this album! Maybe that explains why they use a lot of chords! Seriously, I think these guys' songwriting standards have decreased considerably from their previous album. That couldn't be more clear after listening to this. It's not a great song, though. While it has a lot of chords, they're not such captivating ones, and the melody ain't that great. Again, where this song is excellent is in the instrumentation. It has all of that super-dramatics that have made them famous, and you can expect all of the same huuuuge instrumental layers all over this sucker!

My Body is a Cage B+
This is a pretty good concluding track. They bring out that huge pipe organ again, which I always like to hear! Really, if more songs would feature a HUGE pipe organ, I think the world would be better off. (But that's just my opinion.) They do bring out a nice build-up from that minimal bongo-drum-led introduction to a more huge explosion by the end. This is a good song to listen to that's very dramatic in an Ennio Morricone kind of way. The melody is passable. It's nothing like the track that closed Funeral. Not even close. Good song, though.

Concluding Remarks:

Arcade Fire's follow-up is a love-orgy of lush and dynamic instrumentals. Other than that, unfortunately, their songwriting standards had taken quite a large hit compared to their previous album, Funeral. Where are all those captivating harmonies and memorable melodies? ... NOWHERE!!!!!