October 25, 2013

Arcade Fire - Reflektor (New Album)


Happy Friday everyone, I come bearing gifts.

Arcade Fire's follow up to 2010's Grammy winning album The Suburbs is due to be released on October 28th, but the band has been far to generous and has provided their fans the opportunity to stream the album from front to back (and subsequently, made the stream private a few days later). I've just finished my first listen through and immediately jumped back in for another. Let me tell you, this is a huge piece of music, and I mean that in two ways.  In a literal sense, it's a full 85 minute double album but more importantly, the album is big in that it is absolutely rammed with quality. I know it's pretty excessive to be standing on rooftops yelling ALBUM OF THE YEAR after one listen, but honestly, this is a phenomenal collection of music. Great songwriting, skillful instrumentation, as well as themes and melodies that run from the front of the album to the back, give it a very cohesive, concept album-like feel.

On this album, Arcade Fire seem to have accomplished something that many artists seem to struggle with: After huge mainstream success, following up with an album that progresses from their previous work, without totally departing from their earlier sound. This album is not The Suburbs 2. It is a different animal, and a great one at that

 Their Google Chrome experiment is pretty cool too: https://www.justareflektor.com/

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