by Tina WhelskiYou might expect a record titled Funeral to be a bit macabre, but the debut CD from Arcade Fire on Merge Records is anything but, with beautifully lush rock compositions that are positively refreshing and organic.
“We just came back from my Grand Pop Alvino’s funeral just as we were finishing up the record and he was really a monumental figure for me and Régine, my whole family and everyone,” says Butler. “It was just the whole mixed emotion of celebrating someone and missing them and being around all these people—my family—who I almost never see except for at a funeral or a wedding and relating to people in a really short intense period. Something about the emotional quality of that is what I think was going on in the record and it just made sense.”
As opposed to focusing on the love of one person, the Canadian band widened the scope to include the group of people that surrounds you, such as family and friends and the “messed up inner-relationships at the core of our lives.”
“In general, we took the approach that you’re small, seemingly insignificant personal relationships all have some sort of greater importance in other peoples’ lives than your life in the world in general,” says Butler. “A lot of stuff does come down to small relationships.”
Lyrical views are infused by Arcade Fire’s eclectic exploration of various instruments and the musicians’ willingness to gravitate to whatever sound enhances a mood’s texture.
“We end up switching around instruments quite a bit and just coincidentally a lot of times we end up writing stuff not playing our first instruments,” says Butler. “Régine plays a lot of drums on the record and she’s only been playing for about eight months. Richard is a bass player and he plays guitar on the record. Tim is basically a guitar player and he plays mostly bass. For whatever reason, there’s a certain kind of energy that we’ve found playing something we’re not intimately familiar with that tends to translate to just a different kind of sound when we all come together and play.”
Pairing these whimsical colorings with imaginative ponderings is effective throughout the album. In “The Crown of Love,” you’ll find memorable lyrics, such as: “You pray for rain. I pray for brightness,” or “If you still want me/Please forgive me/The crown of love/Is falling from me.” In “Une Annee Sans Lumiere” lines such as “If you see a shadow, there’s something there” vibrantly translate perspective.
Butler explained that Arcade Fire’s songs take a few listens to appreciate—that initially he didn’t think people would like some of them, but after about five listens, it really grows on you. That’s just the type of band they are. Funeral took me only two listens and I assure you, once you’re attracted, you’ll play it over and over again. The early critical praise Arcade Fire has garnered recently is merited.
See them during the CMJ Music Marathon on Oct 13 at Mercury Lounge. If you miss that show, catch their Nov 11 date at Bowery Ballroom.
Originally published in The Aquarian Weekly 10/13/04.
Arcade Fire performing "Neighborhood #2(Laika)."
Husband-and-wife team Win Butler and Régine Chassagne share songwriting credits on the sweeping tracks, fleshed out by band mates, Richard Parry, Tim Kingsbury, and Win’s little brother Will. The album title, like the songs, were initially influenced by the emotional twists coursing through the couples’ lives upon the passing of Butler’s grandfather, but the result is a musically diverse, uplifting tribute that measures individual interpersonal relations and the world relative to them in poetic terms.
“We just came back from my Grand Pop Alvino’s funeral just as we were finishing up the record and he was really a monumental figure for me and Régine, my whole family and everyone,” says Butler. “It was just the whole mixed emotion of celebrating someone and missing them and being around all these people—my family—who I almost never see except for at a funeral or a wedding and relating to people in a really short intense period. Something about the emotional quality of that is what I think was going on in the record and it just made sense.”
As opposed to focusing on the love of one person, the Canadian band widened the scope to include the group of people that surrounds you, such as family and friends and the “messed up inner-relationships at the core of our lives.”
“In general, we took the approach that you’re small, seemingly insignificant personal relationships all have some sort of greater importance in other peoples’ lives than your life in the world in general,” says Butler. “A lot of stuff does come down to small relationships.”
Lyrical views are infused by Arcade Fire’s eclectic exploration of various instruments and the musicians’ willingness to gravitate to whatever sound enhances a mood’s texture.
“We end up switching around instruments quite a bit and just coincidentally a lot of times we end up writing stuff not playing our first instruments,” says Butler. “Régine plays a lot of drums on the record and she’s only been playing for about eight months. Richard is a bass player and he plays guitar on the record. Tim is basically a guitar player and he plays mostly bass. For whatever reason, there’s a certain kind of energy that we’ve found playing something we’re not intimately familiar with that tends to translate to just a different kind of sound when we all come together and play.”
Pairing these whimsical colorings with imaginative ponderings is effective throughout the album. In “The Crown of Love,” you’ll find memorable lyrics, such as: “You pray for rain. I pray for brightness,” or “If you still want me/Please forgive me/The crown of love/Is falling from me.” In “Une Annee Sans Lumiere” lines such as “If you see a shadow, there’s something there” vibrantly translate perspective.
Butler explained that Arcade Fire’s songs take a few listens to appreciate—that initially he didn’t think people would like some of them, but after about five listens, it really grows on you. That’s just the type of band they are. Funeral took me only two listens and I assure you, once you’re attracted, you’ll play it over and over again. The early critical praise Arcade Fire has garnered recently is merited.
See them during the CMJ Music Marathon on Oct 13 at Mercury Lounge. If you miss that show, catch their Nov 11 date at Bowery Ballroom.
Originally published in The Aquarian Weekly 10/13/04.
Arcade Fire performing "Neighborhood #2(Laika)."
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