Album Review- The Arcade Fire- WE

I think there were a lot of us impressed by Arcade Fire’s “Funeral”. I (at least very briefly) contemplated traveling across the country to see them live. It was such a scene-changing disc. Arcade Fire seemed a bit more grounded in rock on their next two records, shifting into a band that was defining 00s indie rock as influenced as much by Bruce Springsteen as anyone. I still rate “The Suburbs” quite highly. With a three year layoff, they made another direction change with Reflektor. A Sandinista size mess that had some of their best singles hidden in it’s nearly hour and a half run time. 2017’s Everything Now seems an extension of the move to electronic dance rock and I thought then my love affair with the band had come to an end. Those thoughts lingered as I first heard WE, the surely difficult sixth album (I’m just making that up- is it a thing -LA Woman, Green, The Head on the Door, Physical Graffiti, Music for the Masses, New Order’s Republic, Van Halen’s 1984- you decide). But I have come around to WE which is a slight turn on the Arcade Fire experience which is likely to win as many as it turns away. The titles suggest a throwback to Funeral, but it’s a mix of the personal themes of those follow ups and then the electronic dance beat of Reflektor. Reviews seem to be either really high or really low. I think after a few listens, I am with the former, while acknowledging the shortcomings that cause the latter. In many ways, I am reminded of their contemporaries (a band whose timeline is very similar with just one more album in the discography) the Killers- a band that might not immediately spring to mind sonically. However, like the Killers recent work, Arcade Fire seems to be pushing through on just raw ambition, confidence and conviction. WE is an album that doesn’t sound like much on paper, and I suspect the lyric sheet looks more like The Stooges than Dylan. But Win Butler is as unshakable as Brandon Flowers, and the band is in fine form (and Régine Chassagne’s contribution can’t be overlooked). I think a big asset is that it’s a relatively short album (40 mins) and most songs generally end around four minutes with rare exception (“Rabbit Hole” follows “Reflektor” and “Nightlife” as a song that succeeds despite being essentially a repetitive dance floor jam). Another interesting and a bit ironic part to me has also been remarked upon by others in passing or in part. When Funeral came out in 2004, it did not sound like anything else. WE sounds like a band who has binged on the music that immediately preceded 2004 and it is chock full of that influence- Mercury Rev, Grandaddy, Flaming Lips, and Radiohead. Overall, I think Arcade Fire succeeded in what they wanted to do with WE. Now, listening to a new Arcade Fire album while not considering the band’s legacy is going to be next to impossible. I can’t do much to convince people who won’t like this, but I think I am a fan