Arcade Fire - Supersymmerty

On August 12, 2014, Arcade Fire came to Calgary. I have been a fan of Arcade Fire since the beginning but this was the first time I was able to see them live. Last time Arcade Fire was in town I missed them because I was already committed to seeing Black Label Society that night, and I am one of the very few people on earth who is a fan of both of those bands. This time around there was no metal concert scheduling conflict.

In October of last year (2013) Arcade Fire released their fourth studio album “Reflektor” a two disc experiment that, like every other Arcade Fire album, is hard to describe. A major reason I love Arcade Fire is that they are always inventing new ways to create new music. When I say “Reflektor” is like every other Arcade Fire album in that it is hard to describe I mean that in a very thorough and complete way, The common characteristic of every Arcade Fire album thus far has been that each one was a brave new musically approach, and with that in mind “Reflektor” does not sound like any previous Arcade Fire album. Basically Arcade Fire is so unique they don’t even sound like Arcade Fire.

The Mirror Man

The August 12th concert was part of the “Reflektor” tour. The show opened with a man wearing a full suite of mirrors including a hat and mask and everything, he walked to the centre of the open crowd and announced “Calgary! Arcade Fire!” He later appeared in the same spot and danced in small circles during the song “Afterlife” at least I think that was the song playing, either way his presence was a tripped out visual. Arcade Fire has become known for their pranks and gags, like pretending to be Daft Punk. This time around they used the icon of their giant papier-mâché heads from the “Reflektor” music video on two occasions during the live concert. Once to have a fake opening with five people pretending to be them by wearing the fake heads and then being interrupted by the real Arcade Fire, and then again later by having the same imposters play a recording of Loverboy’s “Working For The Weekend” which they again promptly interrupted with the much needed encore.

But the real fun, at least for me, was the wild storm of interchangeable roles everyone in the band has. Win the leader of the group sings primary vocals, most of the time, plays lead guitar, and sometimes plays keyboard. Regina sings background vocals, sometimes lead vocals, plays the keyboard and drums, and the accordion at one point. William, Win’s younger brother, plays the keyboard and bass guitar as well as backing vocals. Sarah plays the violin, keyboards and backing vocals. Richard kept swapping between drums, bass and keyboards, and of course backing vocals. Tim was consistently on the bass, but not always. There were three other guys I am unable to figure out the names of and they too were all over the stage. It was an impressive sight, seeing the band members of Arcade Fire transition between songs from one discipline to another and made all the more impressive how multitalented all of them are. A true artistic musical experience, I am the richer for having witnessed it.

This is the “Reflektor” tour and it was expected we would primarily hear songs from that album, but naturally Arcade Fire performed some of their most popular tracks from previous albums like “Rebellion (Lies),” “No Cars Go,” and “Sprawl II,” you know these songs;

http://colinkellymusicinreview.blogspot.ca/2011/03/february-2010-arcade-fire-rebellion.html

http://colinkellymusicinreview.blogspot.ca/2011/03/january-2008-arcade-fire-no-cars-go.html

http://colinkellymusicinreview.blogspot.ca/2011/03/february-2011-part-2-arcade-fire-sprawl.html

I love the first three Arcade Fire albums a lot, and if I had to rank the Arcade Fire discography I would place the newest one “Reflektor” last, but that does not mean that “Reflektor” is not a worthwhile album. As stated early it is yet another completely new adventure by Arcade Fire and a lot special moments have come from it.

David Bowie guest sang on their first single off of “Reflektor” the self titled track of the same name. This is also the music video where they broke out the giant papier-mâché heads, which have become fairly iconic. 

 

Reflektor

The second track off the album is “We Exists” a song about trans-people, because you know, they do in fact exist. The list of songs in support of, or defensive of, trans-persons is few, so Arcade Fire has done something kind of noble for writing a song reflective of their condition. It is a very clever approach too, a simple acknowledge about the mere existence of someone can have something of an avalanche affect in the minds of the otherwise complacent.

We Exists

Also, what better way to show humor, humility, and showcase your new songs than by having a multi-part music video/movie? Including cameos by the likes of Michael Cera, Zach Galifianakis and others, who mostly show up just to insult Arcade Fire; charming.

Mini Movie/Music Video

But my favorite tune on the new album is “Supersymmetry.” Now woe is me because they did not play “Supersymmetry” at the concert, but that is okay, presumably I will be live. “Supersymmerty” is a very electronic song whose bass is composed of multiple keyboards and soft drums, and the melody is mostly violins and gentle guitar chords. It is very soothing and relaxing. I initially thought the song was about sound coming together, because that is what the song is. There is lot of different sounds coming together in many Arcade Fire songs and “Supersymmerty” is a very strong example, so I believed the idea of the fictional term “Supersymmerty” was about harmony of sounds melting together into a soup for the soul, and I guess I am sort of right, no matter how you feel about it, because that is the song structure of “Supersymmerty” in a nutshell.

Scarlet Johansson's perfect
face is not on the cover because
she is only a voice in the moive.

“Supersymmetry” was included on the soundtrack for the Spike Jonze movie “Her.” “Her” was a daring film, it stars Joaquin Phoenix and his impressive mustache, and the plot is he falls in love with the artificial intelligence that serves as the operating system to his personal computer, voiced by Scarlet Johansson. It is a strange movie because nothing you think is going to happen happens. Anyway once I saw “Her” and “Supersymmerty” played I thought to myself that the lyrics were a little to perfectly appropriate for the film, and I was forced to consider the possibility that the song was written specifically for the movie “Her,” which according to Spike Jonze is the case:

http://pitchfork.com/news/53018-spoke-jonze-says-arcade-fires-supersymmetry-was-originally-made-for-his-film-her/

It is not as though my initial interpretation in contradicted by this discovery, rather I feel it enriches my take away message of systems working in symmetry. The unorthodox love story in “Her” is about connecting with people and technological systems in emotional ways and that too could be thought of as “Supersymmerty.” A massive number of carefully crafted sounds coming together to form a great song, that’s “Supersymmerty.” Yeah I like it; it can be as deep as you want it to be.

I could muse on about Arcade Fire and “Supersymmerty” for a long while but I believe I have said enough. Your homework assignment is to listen to “Reflektor” and watch the movie “Her” and then think about things for a long time, because that is what I did, and I enjoyed it.

- King of Braves

Giant papier-mâché heads

Arcade Fire - Sprawl II

This month the Grammys happened. While all the fake musicians patted themselves on the back for doing a terrible job, doing their best to convince themselves that they were more than just corporate prostitutes, something interesting happened, “The Suburbs,” won the album of the year.

Because of this development I gave a closer look. After looking over all the nominees for this year’s “best album,” all I can think is now could anything but “The Suburbs,” win? It was the only remotely good album nominated. All insults towards popular culture aside, I’m just happy someone artistic, creative, and good is beating the odds and getting the recognition they deserve, way to go Arcade Fire, you’re so damned awesome that even the brainwashed can’t ignore how great you are, and for that I applaud you.

“The Suburbs,” is fantastic, and worthy of album of the year, I mean no one is going to nominate “The Wicked Symphony,” so I’ll never be completely satisfied, but I’ll take what I can get, and if I had to pick a close second it would have been “The Suburbs.”

“The Suburbs” flows like “Funeral,” something that was lost somewhat in “Neon Bible,” so this again makes picking out an individual song difficult, but that’s not the only thing it has in common with “Funeral,” the narrative content is very similar in many ways. Remove the fantastic element of the frozen post apocalyptic world, and you have “The Suburbs.” A much more realistic story emerges, with the element of children growing up and feeling alone a returning theme. One critic stated that Win Butler’s musings on the topic of growing up in “The Suburbs,” doesn’t yield enough content to fill a sixteen track concept album, and all I have to say to that critic is, listen to the album, clearly no problem. If something more is being said in the narrative then just Win’s reflection of his youth it eludes me, this seems an album of self reflection on one’s own childhood and nothing more. Growing up is something we all do, so unsurprisingly, there is plenty content within the album we can all relate too.

I was very impressed with Regina Chassagne on this album. The wife of Win Butler and backup singer for the group, (I’m pretty sure she plays piano on some songs as well), she really steps up in my opinion. On “Funeral,” she was very much a backup singer, but her involvement has been growing, and I thought it was something to note on “The Suburbs” that two of my favourite songs on the album had her taking the lead vocals.

I really like the beat and feel of “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains),” a really good song about not fitting in, and an interesting celebration therein. So that is my song to represent “The Suburbs,” it was a hard choice, but I really like this song, especially the childlike view of the city and the people in it, it is one of the things Arcade Fire does best, remembering the awe and wonder we felt when we were young.

Until next month, keep on rocking in the free world.

- Colin Kelly

Arcade Fire - Rebellion (Lies)

I should have started the double feature a long time ago, because now I kind of feel like I’m stating the obvious, The Arcade Fire – “Funeral,” is a really good album. In January 2008 I reviewed Arcade Fire – “No Cars Go,” I wanted to talk about “Funeral” but “Neon Bible” had just come out and it felt more relevant to talk about that album. Now I know I should have done both, because that’s what I’m doing now.

For those of you who live under a rock “Funeral” is one of the best albums to come out in the last twenty years. In a rare moment of human intelligence it is actually agreed upon by many that The Arcade Fire is an amazing musical group, critics love them, they have a very strong fan base, and they are winning awards all the time. Rarely both the critics and the popular consensus get it right, but they seem to have pulled through this one time.

So what is there for me to say really, Arcade Fire are awesome? You should already know that.

Arcade Fire’s first album “Funeral” was a true masterpiece, their best album to date in my opinion. Rich with fantastic musical content, but also tell something of a narrative from song to song. There is something beautiful about the childlike imagination that goes into albums like “Funeral” that I truly adore. What if a snowstorm caused the end of the world, killing off all the parents, leaving only the children to rebuild? They would delight in the freedom and winter fun at first, and slowly realize the gravity of the situation. It’s a lot of heavy ideas especially when considered from the point of view of children, would they really appreciate what had happened, and when things got ugly in the post-apocalyptic society how would they cope? Well listen to the album and find out. You can appreciate the inspiration for the album from lead man Edwin (Win) Butler, being from Texas, where I’m sure he never fit in, moving to Montreal, and seeing snow for the first time, he may have thought, “Holy crap this could destroy civilization!”

It’s hard to pick a favourite song from the album since, they are all so good, and also, the songs flowing from one another creates a connection between songs making them harder to disassociate. Like any great story you need an intriguing beginning, “Neighbourhood #1,” and climatic middle, “Rebellion (Lies),” and a gripping end, “The Backseat.” I could just as easily do three music in reviews dissecting each song, but for the sake of your reading convenience I’ll pick just one. While I have always believed in breaking traditional story telling habits and feel a strong end is the most important part of your story (leave them wanting more right?) it is much easier to pick the middle in this example, the classic climax of any story, and also there is less back story to absorb.

“Rebellion (Lies)” stands alone fairly well, as it is a song that is about death and loss in general, rather than any particular specific death or loss. Opening lyrics “Sleeping is giving in, no matter what the time is. Sleeping is giving in, so lift those heavy eyelids.” I challenge you to find a more poetic way to say “don’t die.” Of course the song takes on a whole new level of significance once you remember the setting, children coming to terms with death. Another lyric I particular like is the chorus “Every time you close your eyes (lies lies)” there could be something being said about objective reality there, I have felt for a very long time children (and idiots) struggle to differentiate dreams from reality, the appeal to believe our dreams are more than just images in our heads but really real exists, but it takes some measure of maturity to accept waking life as rigid reality.

“Funeral” is a great album we are all richer for it.

Until tomorrow, keep on rocking in the free world.

- Colin Kelly

Arcade Fire - No Cars Go

Happy New Year, I hope everyone enjoyed they’re excuse to get drunk yesterday.

A murder took place ten feet in front of me yesterday, well ten feet in front of, and thirty-two stories down from myself. At 10:00am or so I was sitting at my computer working on schoolwork when I heard a gunshot. I’m used to hearing gun shots, what with living down town and all, but in broad daylight? Sure enough five more consecutive shots rang out, and what do you know a drug deal gone wrong happened right out side of my building. Given where my apartment is, it would have happened right behind my bedroom wall facing me, and down roughly three hundred feet. Makes you think.

I guess I’m an unusual person, did not phase me in the least. I know I’m safe.

Anyway enough of that, lets talk about music. I guess I should try to keep up with the times a little better. It is difficult for myself since I wholly distrust the musical opinions of modern radio and music television, and frankly who can blame me? Cult, or Indie, or underground, or whatever losers who desperately want to believe they are unique call themselves, I often find some selectively good music still in this day and age. However word takes time to reach me since I do not spend an obsessive amount of time researching every last note of music that hits the stands. Nonetheless I do what I can and try to keep up with the times the best I can. Whatever month it was I talked about Interpol would have been an attempt at such.

The point is, since I’ve had a whole year to look back upon, I feel confident I can find something through the entire year of 2007 that I can preach as being great. In all fairness it was far from the worst year I’ve seen for new music radio programming, though in truth nothing truly spectacular steeped out and slapped me in the face boldly screaming “THIS IS AWESOME!” Nothing except for one album; Arcade Fire – “Neon Bible.”

Now since I don’t feel the need or in possession of the right to mail out an entire album, I will be forced to choose one song, which is unfortunate since the album, as a whole, is truly awesome.

For those of you who couldn’t fight your way through the masses of crap that came out this year to discover Arcade Fire, allow me to give you a crash course of what I know.

Arcade Fire is a Canadian group out of Montreal. They have several members, more then five at least, but I do not know the exact number. They are very unique in sound and style, which says a lot now of days primarily because there appears to be a stagnation of creativity for the last two decades. Also it should be noted the more music that is created the harder and harder it becomes to find something “else” that still qualifies as “new.” Regardless Arcade Fire can rightfully carry the moniker of original with them; they’ve earned it.

A year, or perhaps two years ago, Ed the sock gave Arcade Fire a hard time for their video of the song “Rebellion (Lies)” off of the album “Funeral.” I suppose the video is nothing special, in Ed’s defense, however the usually hilarious Ed the sock went on how Arcade Fire was the biggest bunch of assholes in the entire Canadian music industry. Apparently when they went to the Junos they badmouthed every other group as being shit and being recognized only because they were Canadian charity cases.

I guess that is kind of a dick move, but when you’re right, you’re right.

As far as I’m concerned you can be the worst human being imaginable as long as you do your job well I will respect you. Often times at work I will tell people, “The new guy can be a coke-addicted, neo nazi, ex-convict murderer, Satanist, as long as he shows up for work and works hard I will respect him. I won’t fucking like him, but I will respect him.” Put a little more poetically, there is a saying in a book that I once read, “The only thing you can truly respect is ability,” and I whole heartily agree.

So, boo hoo, Canadian charity case musicians, Arcade Fire is a bunch of jerks, well I think the real problem is everyone else sucks. I’ve been saying this a lot lately, “Why should I change, they’re the ones who suck,” which is actually a line from the movie “Office Space,” Craig being a huge movie buff caught it right away. Arcade Fire doesn’t need to change, whatever they are doing is; AWESOME!

Anyway since I had to choose one song from the new album I’m going to go with “No Cars Go.” It seems to me the catchiest, easiest to quickly fall in love with song off the album, a good introduction to the album “Neon Bible,” and Arcade Fire. But seriously heed my words, go download or buy more Arcade Fire and support something fresh and new and worth it. In my humble opinion “Rebellion (Lies)” is their best song, so check that one out at least.

Until next month, keep on rocking in the free world.

- Colin