Project 1001: The Suburbs by Arcade Fire
So can you understand / Why I want a daughter while I'm still young? / I want to hold her hand / And show her some beauty / Before this damage is done
Arcade Fire is one of those 21st century bands that are pretty big but for whatever reason never lit my fire. Not exactly sure why. It’s possible the reason is that this band and record are very representative of their generation, of which I am not part. Maybe that is why it doesn’t resonate with me as powerfully as it does for younger people. Arcade Fire was on to something, though claiming such luminaries such as Peter Gabriel, David Bowie, Bono as fans.1 In any event, they are an excellent band, and this album is really good. I enjoyed listening to it a lot. A standout for me is “City With No Children”, a lament questioning if our present societal values will destroy the future. Another strong track is “Month of May” which cooks and burns. My rating:
NME described The Suburbs as, “A wistful meditation on the ever-presence of the past, with a melancholic sonic palette and a preoccupation with unpicking your personal narrative” and it is an album forward-thinking and nostalgic at the same time, which is “the mark of genius, and this is certainly a quality that ebbs and flows through Arcade Fire’s era-defining album.”2
“The album is another triumph of emotional generosity from the most humane and vital rock group of our generation,” according to Slant magazine.3
Looking back at the albums ten years on, Entertainment Weekly observed, “The band certainly aims for transcendence on The Suburbs — a work of impressively fervent majesty, even if nothing here moves them forward substantially from their enthralling 2004 debut, Funeral, and darker 2007 follow-up, Neon Bible.”4
A 4.5/5 contemporaneous review by NME concluded, “On a more than thematic level, too, it forms the perfect third step after Funeral’s nervous, nerdy kicks and the ‘proper rock stars’ sonic strut of Neon Bible, which sometimes tended to the portentous; The Suburbs isn’t anything as simple as ‘back to basics’ – they’re a much more accomplished, musically interesting band now. But it finds the band reclaiming a sense of humour and playfulness that smooths over a deadly serious intent.”5
Rolling Stone’s four-star review observed, “On their fantastic third album, The Suburbs, (Arcade Fire) aim higher than ever, with Roman numerals and parentheses in the song titles. In their dictionary, “suburbs” is nowhere near “subtlety.” But that just adds to the emotional wallop.6
Spin’s review concluded with:
“Radiant with apocalyptic tension and grasping to sustain real bonds, The Suburbs extends hungrily outward, recalling the dystopic miasma of William Gibson’s sci-fi novels and Sonic Youth’s guitar odysseys. Desperate to elude its own corrosive dread, it keeps moving, asking, looking, and making the promise that hope isn’t just another spiritual cul-de-sac. After all, you never know who might be coming in the next car.”7
The review in AllMusic made several interesting observations:
“If nostalgia is just pain recalled, repaired, and resold, then The Suburbs is its sales manual…Multiple spins reveal a work that's as triumphant and soul-slamming as it is sentimental and mature…The Suburbs feels like Richard Linklater's Dazed & Confused for the Y generation. It's serious without being preachy, cynical without dissolving into apathy, and whimsical enough to keep both sentiments in line, and of all of their records, it may be the one that ages the best.”8
Enjoy and listen without prejudice. Cheers!
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For details about this project, read this: Project 1001 Albums
Charts
• Peak on Billboard 200 album chart: #1 9
• Singles on Billboard Hot 100 chart: n/a
• RIAA certification: Gold | October 19, 2011 10
Released on August 3, 2010. Here’s what else was happening:
Pop Culture
• Number one song: “California Gurls” by Katy Perry featuring Snoop Dogg11
• Number one album: Recovery by Eminem12
• Number one movie: Inception by Christopher Nolan13
• Most watched TV programs: American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, NBC Sunday Night Football, NCIS, Survivor: Heroes vs Villains, NCIS: Los Angeles, Two and a Half Men14, Rizzoli & Isles, The Closer, Royal Pains, Covert Affairs, The Walking Dead, Burn Notice, Jersey Shore, Pawn Stars, White Collar, Deadliest Catch15
• NYT bestseller, fiction: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson16
• NYT bestseller, non-fiction: The Obama Diaries by Laura Ingraham17
Some other albums released that month
• All Night Long by Buckcherry
• Order of the Black by Black Label Society
• The Final Frontier by Iron Maiden
• Tomorrow Morning by Eels
• No Better Than This by John Mellencamp
• Teenage Dream by Katy Perry
• The Reason Why by Little Big Town
• Light Me Up by The Pretty Reckless
• Asylum by Disturbed18
Sport
• Aug 1 British Open Women's Golf, Royal Birkdale GC: 21-year-old Yani Tseng of Taiwan becomes youngest-ever winner of 3 major championships, 1 stroke ahead of Katherine Hull of Australia.
• Aug 7 Jerry Rice, Emmitt Smith, John Randle, Russ Grimm, Rickey Jackson, Floyd Little & Dick LeBeau are inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
• Aug 15 PGA Championship Men's Golf, Whistling Straits GC: Martin Kaymer of Germany wins his first major title by 1 stroke in 3-hole aggregate playoff with Bubba Watson.19
Notable Births
TBD
Historical Events
• Aug 4 California's Proposition 8, the ballot initiative prohibiting same-sex marriage passed by the state's voters in 2008, is overturned by Judge Vaughn Walker in the case Perry v. Schwarzenegger.
• Aug 14 1st Summer Youth Olympic Games opens in Singapore.
• Aug 19 Operation Iraqi Freedom winds down as the last of the United States brigade combat teams cross the border into Kuwait.20
Notable Deaths
• Aug 3 Bobby Hebb, American soul and R&B singer-songwriter ("Sunny"), dies of lung cancer at 72.
• Aug 8 Jack Parnell, British jazz drummer, and orchestra leader (The Benny Hill Show; The Englebert Humperdick Show; Barbra Streisand and Other Musical Instruments), dies of cancer at 87.
• Aug 8 Patricia Neal, American actress (Hud, Subject Was Roses) and wife of Roald Dahl, dies at 84.21
Ibid.