Arcade Fire – The Suburbs

Ah, the ‘difficult’ third album. Welcome to Make Or Break Time, and tonight your contestants will be Arcade Fire, fresh from clearing a field at this summer’s Oxegen festival, having decided that playing Ireland's answer to the V festival would be a better idea then headlining Electric Picnic again. This really could go either way here, folks; will our heroes make an album comparable to the majesty of their classic debut, or are they destined to be sent home empty-handed, wondering how that cuddly toy got away?

The Suburbs definitely takes a few listens to sink in; anyone looking for the instant hits of ‘Wake Up’ or ‘Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)’ may initially feel disappointed, but give it a chance to tunnel its way into your head and this is a record that will make a beeline for your heart. After the apocalyptic visions presented by last album Neon Bible, this outing deals with situations much closer to home. Most of the tracks touch on and mention the concept of suburban life, and Win Butler’s lyrics here frequently embrace personal issues, where his pervious work dealt with grander, state-of-the-world themes. His songwriting style has changed accordingly, trading in Springsteenesque bombast for Neil Young-like subtlety. You get the feeling that the majority of these songs could be played acoustically, and they would lose none of their power.

Opening with its title track, the album sets a relaxed, laidback pace for itself, all strummed acoustics and tinkling piano; lyrically, the band reveal in the first verse that they have moved on from their previous doomsday scenario fixation: "By the time the first bombs fell, we were already bored / Sometimes I can't believe it / I'm moving past the feeling". ‘Ready To Start’ picks up the pace next, and is the closest thing to anything from Funeral, with its driving rhythm and Win warning of businessmen drinking his blood.

There are too many highlights here to list them all (the album itself is a typically epic sixteen tracks and sixty-four minutes in length) but high praise must go to the Régine-sung ‘Empty Room’, with its chaotic strings and a guitar sound lifted from Loveless, ‘Suburban War’, with its shifting rhythms and agonising cry of "Oh my old friends, they don't know me now", and the previously-released ‘Month Of May’, easily the heaviest track the band has ever produced, featuring a riff that wouldn't sound out of place on a Queens of the Stone Age album.

It's hard to imagine how Arcade Fire could have made a stronger, more assured third album than this. Whether they reach the commercial heights of the likes of Radiohead et al. is of little consequence to the music itself: with The Suburbs they have placed themselves at the top of the table when you talk about truly great bands of the last ten years. Once more we are reminded of the key to their success, namely an ability to make serious music without pretension – a stumbling block which 99 percent of bands these days fall over. They are a band you can love, safe in the knowledge that they will give you something precious in return. I think they deserve that cuddly toy.