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Arcade Fire to "rock" Orem

I liked Funeral, Neon Bible was decent, Suburbs I didn't really like at all. Also, I don't see this show listed on their site...
 
I can understand being a little bored by The Suburbs -- it's something of an intellectual exercise, and as such, is a lot more clinical than their previous albums. I can chalk that up to personal taste. But Arcade Fire is anything but generic indie music. I wouldn't think of writing them off or saying they've lost the mission until they put out a few boring albums. Any band can suffer a dip despite their best intentions.

I happen to think The Suburbs is fantastic, but my initial reaction was that it was boring. Then it clicked and i was like, oh, I see. So even though I disagree with you guys about this I understand what you mean. You haven't had the click. I don't fault you.

But I do fault you if you think they're generic indie. Come on. That's crazy. There's nobody who sounds like Arcade Fire. Listen to Funeral and Neon Bible -- it's like somebody put David Bowie, The Talking Heads, and early U2 in a blender. Those albums are ridiculously badass.
 
LogGrad98 said:
As far as Arcade Fire goes, it is pretty much standard issue indie, nothing really special. Funny how much indie bands are starting to conform to their own formulas. Just another genre really. And like any other genre, there are some standouts and lots of conformers. Arcade Fire seems to be just another conformer.

No offense if they are your favorite band, I just agree with an earlier post that they are kind of boring.
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Standard Fare?

hmmm no. They have two of the best albums in the past 10 years.
Their last album was pretty average, but it wasn't a stinker.

They put on a great live show.

Far above average, and one of the best concerts to ever grace the hollowed stages of Orem CC. They may not be your cup of tea, but don't throw them in with all the crap you like. Thanks.
 
Revolution 9 said:
Standard Fare?

hmmm no. They have two of the best albums in the past 10 years.
Their last album was pretty average, but it wasn't a stinker.

They put on a great live show.

Far above average, and one of the best concerts to ever grace the hollowed stages of Orem CC. They may not be your cup of tea, but don't throw them in with all the crap you like. Thanks.
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Well they may be your cup of tea but don't lift them above what they really are.

And you don't really know what I like so how to you know it is crap? Also if I was saying I didn't care for them, why would I categorize them in the group of music I do like? Try logic sometime, it's pretty cool.

Best albums in the last 10 years? Hardly. Maybe within the tightly defined realm of their genre. Or in the top 200 albums of the last 10 years. I really hope you don't point to a Grammy award. That is the biggest joke of all entertainment industry awards.

They are at best a midlin indie group. Nothing special, nothing to stand out. Lots of groups put on a great live show. The first time I heard any of their albums I lost interest.

I am sure they are one of the better bands to play in Orem. Just speaks to how hard it is to attract solid bands to Orem.

But see that is the beauty of opinion. You can have yours and I can have mine. I am glad you like them, you can enjoy them all you want. I just think they are no different from many other indie rock bands and I won't be rushing out to buy any of their albums anytime soon.
 
Name 3 albums better than Funeral? I'm just curious. The crap statement was a joke for now.
While it's only opinion in the end, I believe most people who blog, and write about music had it listed in the top
5 albums of the decade. I tend to agree.

Grammy awards are meaningless when the don't help prove your point huh? No you're right they really are a joke.

Seriously, you are in the minority if you think Funeral was a average album. Doesn't mean you personally have to love it, but at least admit that your opinion is
in the minority, because it is.

Their last album was average imo, but when you have a band that has released a classic record (and that is what Funeral is/will become), a good one in Neon Bible, and a average one(not poor) in the Suburbs, that's a band that is better than "midlin indie group" to me.

I have no problem with you liking or hating any music I love(to you it's crap or average), but when you make a statement about a band I feel is incorrect I've gotta say something. Let's have a little fun with this.
 
Best albums of the past ten years... somehow thats something entirely up to personal taste. And the fact is that people pumping up Funeral so much probably listened to less than 20 new albums the past 10 years. There's just so much music out there. Arcade Fire just managed to become critical darlings from the start of their career (not to say that they weren't good) and has just ridden that gravy train all the way home.
 
Funeral was a decent album. They have gone downhill from there, or at least stalled out really. But best album of the decade? That is a stretch.

I agree with Lance, it is more an issue of personal taste. I know my country music listening wife thinks every album I listen to is crap and I am sure her pick of best album would not be on many of our top 100 lists.
 
It is personal taste, that's true, but I've seen "Funeral" pretty high, if not at the top on numerous "Best of the 2000's" lists. It's usually either "Funeral" or "Kid A" at the top.

From the always reliable, never refutable Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funeral_(album)

Reception

Funeral has received almost unanimous praise from music critics, and it is hailed as a modern classic. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average score of 90, based on 30 reviews. It is listed at number 24 on Metacritic's list of highest scored albums of all time.[3] Allmusic reviewer James Christopher Monger gave the album a rating of five stars out of five. He described it as "brave, empowering, and dusted with something that many of the indie-rock genre's more contrived acts desperately lack: an element of real danger."[4] Rock critic Robert Christgau gave the album an A-, saying that Funeral was "...too fond of drama, but aware of its small place in the big world, and usually beautiful."[5] Pitchfork Media gave the album a 9.7 out of 10 rating, and ultimately ranked the album #2 on their Top 200 Albums of the 2000s list, after Radiohead's Kid A.[1]

Drowned in Sound also highly praised Funeral. Reviewer Jesus Chigley called the album "...empowering and hopeful and euphoric all at once", saying that "it says everything there is to say about mortality and it does it in 10 tracks."[6] Stylus's Josh Drimmer gave Funeral an A, calling it "celebratory, emotionally rich and life-affirming".[7] Tiny Mix Tapes gave the album five stars out of five; "Funeral," the reviewer wrote, "is like nothing you've heard before, and altogether familiar."[8] Dave Simpson of The Guardian called it "one of the year's best already, by a mile."[9] Zeth Lundy of PopMatters complimented Funeral on its eccentricity, calling it "bizarre at turns and recognizable elsewhere, equally beautiful and harrowing, theatrical and sincere, defying categorization while attempting to create new genres."[10] Entertainment Weekly put it on its end-of-the-decade "best-of" list, saying, "Funerals are generally somber affairs, but the Canadian indie rockers' emotionally charged 2004 debut mostly just made us smile. And, okay, mist up a little."[11]
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I don't think it's that much of a stretch to call it the best album of the decade.

Another fun site, when understood that Radiohead rules teh internets:

https://www.besteveralbums.com/

"OK Computer" best ever? That's a stretch.
 
I had never heard of Arcade Fire until I saw this thread. I went to Youtube, listened to a few of their songs and it hit me, Talking Heads Part II.
 
Marcus said:
I had never heard of Arcade Fire until I saw this thread. I went to Youtube, listened to a few of their songs and it hit me, Talking Heads Part II.
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Maybe. My biggest criticism with Arcade Fire is that they are too serious. They could use some of the Heads' humor.
 
Lance-A-Million said:
Best albums of the past ten years... somehow thats something entirely up to personal taste. And the fact is that people pumping up Funeral so much probably listened to less than 20 new albums the past 10 years.
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The fact? Holy crap that's absurd. So all those music critics that loved Funeral only listen to 2 albums a year? When Rolling Stone gave it 5 stars, it's because they only listened to two albums that year? This is a "fact"? Wow.

I loved Funeral (I preferred Neon Bible) and I am a major music fan who listens to a lot of music. I happen to not think Funeral is the best album of the 00s. Off the top of my head, my money might be on Cassadaga. But there's nothing wrong with those who hold the opinion that it's Funeral. It was a really great album.

I get that you want to push back against a position you disagree with, but I think it's silly for you to argue that it means nothing because it all comes down to opinion anyway (which is relatively true), and then in the same breath dismiss those who have an opinion that differs from yours by inventing a "fact" about them.
 
Lance-A-Million said:
Its called rhetoric. Try not to get too hung up on it.
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At best we can call it a logical fallacy. The word "rhetoric" to refer to a position within a conversation/argument/debate is generally used as a pejorative. What are a few of your favorite albums of the 00's? (I'm not going to diss them, I just want to talk about music.)
 
You know, for most of the 00s I was into the whole indie thing. I would have to say my favorite album of that time's gotta be Turn On The Bright Lights by Interpol. Truly a great listening experience. I can't say what the best is. So many genres and unfortunately I didn't really listen to too many or as eclectic of a mix as I do now. It used to be like choose my favorite bands and then label their CDs "the greatest!". Unfortunately that's the way I also feel it is for many critics. I actually liked Arcade Fire - Intervention and Ocean of Noise are probably my favorites by them.

I usually just digest individual songs these days anyway. I'm always excited to hear a new song that I enjoy, whether it be an old-school Metal song (Megadeth, pre black album Metallica), some new cutting edge "glam"-indie band, an OG indie song by like a Dinosaur Jr, Pavement or Superchunk, a Golden-Age hip hop song (Souls of Mischief for example), classic rock ranging from the Stones all the way to Rush, new-school Hip-hop like Kanye West, electronic like Dubstep or Calvin Harris for example, new-school rock'n'roll like the White Stripes (RIP), Dead Weather, Queens of the Stone Age, Wolfmother, etc. golden oldies Alternative like Oasis or Smashing Pumpkins, random songs by Neil Young, Steely Dan, Todd Lundgren, Jeff Buckley, even random artists like Das Racist (I know, who??). I know there's literally hundreds of songs that I will love that I haven't heard and may never hear. There's just soo much music out there.

I honestly feel like a new "favorite" song can just provide such a lift. Its almost like a fuel. My friends are usually the best at showing me new music, sometimes ill go digging for some of my own tunes, sometimes we'll just stumble upon them.

Damn I love music.
 
Best album of the century so far:

album-hung-for-the-holidays.jpg
 
Lance-A-Million said:
You know, for most of the 00s I was into the whole indie thing. I would have to say my favorite album of that time's gotta be Turn On The Bright Lights by Interpol. Truly a great listening experience. I can't say what the best is. So many genres and unfortunately I didn't really listen to too many or as eclectic of a mix as I do now. It used to be like choose my favorite bands and then label their CDs "the greatest!". Unfortunately that's the way I also feel it is for many critics. I actually liked Arcade Fire - Intervention and Ocean of Noise are probably my favorites by them.

I usually just digest individual songs these days anyway. I'm always excited to hear a new song that I enjoy, whether it be an old-school Metal song (Megadeth, pre black album Metallica), some new cutting edge "glam"-indie band, an OG indie song by like a Dinosaur Jr, Pavement or Superchunk, a Golden-Age hip hop song (Souls of Mischief for example), classic rock ranging from the Stones all the way to Rush, new-school Hip-hop like Kanye West, electronic like Dubstep or Calvin Harris for example, new-school rock'n'roll like the White Stripes (RIP), Dead Weather, Queens of the Stone Age, Wolfmother, etc. golden oldies Alternative like Oasis or Smashing Pumpkins, random songs by Neil Young, Steely Dan, Todd Lundgren, Jeff Buckley, even random artists like Das Racist (I know, who??). I know there's literally hundreds of songs that I will love that I haven't heard and may never hear. There's just soo much music out there.

I honestly feel like a new "favorite" song can just provide such a lift. Its almost like a fuel. My friends are usually the best at showing me new music, sometimes ill go digging for some of my own tunes, sometimes we'll just stumble upon them.

Damn I love music.
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I can't believe Smashing Pumpkins is already golden oldies. Where the **** is the time going? It seems like only yesterday I was a boy seeing the video for "Today" for the first time. There are things I miss about the nineties. I loved Billy Corgan right from the start because he looked like a clean-cut, nice young man. I thought: oh, he looks different. (It was a time of long hair and dirty Levi's.) Then the song proceded to kick ***. Oh, Smashing Pumpkins. I miss you and the teen memories I associate with you.

Turn on the Bright Lights was awesome.

The White Stripes (like The Black Keys) were a blues band, damn it.
 
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