Wake Up

One of the most live-friendly tracks on Funeral happens to be of the kind to give us words of wisdom and direct messages. That’s probably not the best way to write lyrics any more. But the screaming melodies make “Wake Up” a quasi-riot hit with lingering beauties in the end. The band has played “Wake Up” with U2 and David Bowie and due to its strong choir; everyone is pleased to hear this song on any AF act. And then comes AF’s trick of increasing the tempo once again to turn things around eventually.

The song discusses us children of yesterday being raised and grown up numb and senseless and the consequences of that. Troubled kids of the past seems to be the center point of the album. Even after the Neighborhood series, it’s still us, facing a world so unfair with people so confused. The key line on the song which is unfortunately a words of wisdom and some kind of advice is:

If the children don’t grow up, our bodies get bigger but our hearts get torn up. We’re just a million little God’s causing rain storms turning every good thing to rust.

The interpretation is crystal clear and needs no clarifying. It’s time to wake up and face the music. We should have never been brought up to here but now that we are in the middle of this mess of a society, our duty is to wake up and refurnish our hearts.

Crown of Love

Now that you’re free of the neighborhood nest, why not try a pseudo-love song? “Pseudo” I said and that’s not accidental. “Crown of Love” have sounded so pop and stereotyped until I dug a little deeper in the lyrics. So far, I merely sang along with “If you still want me, please forgive me, the crown of love…”, unaware of the upcoming tragedy of “falling from me”. Funeral is an album of teen worries and youth passions, therefore our protagonist in this anthem is again a teenager dwelling in a haze of doubt and uncertainty, generated by a teen-crush and now vanishing away.

Teen-romance is mostly unified with restless and fast emotions towards an opponent that is again undecided and naïve. So it involves a diminutive amount of logic. Now that this romance is finally formed, the boy has his own brain malfunctions and regrets the whole thing. He had carved her name on his eyelids, so everything he used to see was her name. Now that it’s getting colder the boy is praying for blindness. This could be as simple as that if we were not involved with upcoming traumas on the song. There are elements that make the song a bit intricate once more. I guess this is a premise in all Arcade Fire songs. Let’s see!

We are all more or less familiar with teen era’s shameful habit. At least I am. And in fact it will never leave you alone. To cut a long story short, I’m talking about “masturbation”! Yeah, the good old jerking/jacking off or saying hello to your monster, whatever you like! There are two equal lines on the song that badly reminds us of that: “I snuffed it out before my mom walked in my bedroom.” and “I shrugged them off before my mom walked in my bedroom.” I honestly couldn’t relate them to anything more profound and besides, what’s really wrong with the safest way to satisfy yourself.

But “Crown of Love” can also be an ode to all the boy’s past and present lovers. That’s inducted from the lines “The only thing that you keep changin’ is your name, ” it’s just the same story that repeats over and over again. They all gradually become look alike. But it’s still vague to tell who’s dumping who. It’s not only a boy in grief and despair. Since the girl is not giving him a straight answer, too. Is there a pregnancy case involved? No, we’d better wipe that off our minds, we’re not here to make this more complicated. A straight answer can simply be a “yes/no” one around enduring the current situation.

I haven’t found a single Arcade Fire song that changes the tempo willy-nilly and “Crown of Love” is no exception. This time it’s the boy struggling with his own ego and making himself convince there has to been a loyal and complete match out there to offer true and mutual love. “You gotta be the one” triggers more confusions in his brain. But he’s too worn out and drained to stay faithful and in love.

Neighborhood #4 (7 Kettles)

The curtain call to the neighborhood series calms the weather cold, worn and down on anyone who has followed the story so far. There are no references and stories and inner lines. The song exhibits a display of a worried but hopeful man’s perspective; the battle of modernity and the old school feelings that have made up our past and memories; and that have given meaning to our lives; it’s also a song about the passing of time.

The first stanza makes it clear: The coming of new kids that causes the old folks in the neighborhood to vanish in the well of time. Time acts like the villain in this story. It’s definitely not something the man wants, but at the same time, it cannot get more inevitable than this. There are no stop signs.
Then comes a more optimistic stanza. Maybe the past is destined to be buried, just to wash away the villainy and filth. All the remaining neighbors are starting up a fire to burn the old folks who were witches and liars. The throwing away of the superstitious entities of the society. Those who thought Alex, the brother of the family was bit by a vampire and we should catch his tears in a cup. So get rid of these fanatic thoughts for the upcoming future can be brighter and better. The man’s eyes are covered by the hand of his unborn kids as if they (children, the new generation) are here to put you away from the dismal realities. But you’re still trying to read between the lines. But then burning the old folks can have its own communist/Russian interpretations, too. Just like other Neighborhood songs that hugely remind us of the Stalinism era in Russia, anyway.

The battle of modernity, I said. The storyteller blames these worries and distraction partly on the media (the symbol of modernity). There are also other references to media on the Neon Bible (“MTV what have you done to me?” if you remember). It’s like we’re in the midst of this battle. It’s us, versus our past/traditions and again versus our vague future that is constructed over the make-believe of media and false interpretations.

But this song is not void of metaphors:

They say a watched pot won’t ever boil
Well I closed my eyes and nothing changed
Just some water getting hotter in the flames

What’s with the pot and boiling, and the fact that the song’s other name is “7 Kettles”? The first lines try to explain if you try to involve yourself throughout these stages, somehow you will not reach your goals. Maybe it concerns raising kids. Because the kids in this neighborhood are all the brainchild of superstitious minds, strict rules and habits and violence (refer to other Neighborhood songs to find out for yourself). If you like to be as strict and stupid as your parents were about looking into the future of your family and kids, the water in the pot won’t boil. Boiling water can represent getting a proper outcome from your life and making sense of it all. But seemingly the man has followed all those guidelines and the water is not boiling yet, it’s just getting hotter in the flames. So it’s like no matter how hard you try, time creeps into your life and controls the zeitgeist. So the only thing left for you is just letting go of the worries, you only got to give it time.

And for the “seven” issue, I still haven’t found evidence. It can refer to the holiness of our lives. We are kettles! We live to raise children (boil water) for the society. 7 deadly sins and 7 holy virtues. Could be irrelevant but it’s still something I pine to resolve. It doesn’t light a candle. 7 could be anything here. A neighborhood of 7 families? Or is it about the band itself consisted of 7 individuals?

But our presence is not without a holy reason as well. Time washes away everything but we still cannot raise our children on motor oil. Just like a seed from the depth of the soil that needs water to raise and bloom, our children grow healthier and better in our presence. So in the end, it’s time and us who draw the lifelines and this could be the great message of this song. But sadly this was not the way the neighborhood kids were grown up with.

Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)

The third episode of the neighborhood series is the most upbeat song we’re hearing on Funeral. The song may not include the ups and downs of the other tracks on the album so far but is surely a stadium shaker. Win Butler shrieks as he’s seeking for help in the midst of the darkness.

As mentioned on the title, the neighborhood is involved in a “power out” event. The indication of the term has a delicate semantic duality: one on the surface that talks about an event and one that stays in the shadows but seems to be the genuine point to the song. From the outside, and by the primary listens, the song brings you back to the North American ice storm of 1998. So read this piece of info from Wikipedia:

The North American ice storm of 1998 (also known as Great Ice Storm of 1998 and Great Ice Storm ’98) was a massive ice storm that struck a relatively narrow swath of land from eastern Ontario to southern Quebec to Nova Scotia in Canada, and bordering areas from northern New York to central Maine in the United States, in January 1998. It caused massive damage to trees and electrical infrastructure all over the area, leading to widespread long-term power outages. Millions were left in the dark for periods varying from days to weeks, leading to more than 30 fatalities, a shut down of activities in large cities like Montreal and Ottawa, and an unprecedented effort in reconstruction of the power grid.

The protagonist wakes up in darkness. First thing that pops in his mind is that it’s probably a minor temporary malfunction and it’ll pass and as he puts it into words it’s “not really something to shout about”. But then things start to get serious as he ventures out in the city where the darkness has started to linger. The kids are all out of their parents’ control. They’re swinging from the power lines and everybody’s out on the street searching for a source of light. The cause of the outage (in our hypothetical concept of the song) is the kids growing up in a strange storm that has caused them to become numb. So nobody feels the cold or the warmth of anything. People search for a leader (a plan), some claim they have found the light which appears to be nothing but a big lie. This helter skelter in the city could be caused by the things that were beautifully depicted on the first two Neighborhood songs, the story of the tunnels and Laika. Are these kids rioting on the streets like monkeys, the inevitable descendants of that gloomy and dreary zeitgeist?

Despite the song’s energetic and warm nature, it tells a sad tale. It can be the story a the generation’s youth drawn from personal stories (first two tracks) to wider scales (society), all lost and confused. Might sound irrelevant but it reminds me of The Offspring’s “The Kids Aren’t Alright”. Some fans have compared this song to Talking Heads “Once In A Life” time. I didn’t find many similarities but anyway. Some believe the song has references to the dusk of Christianity. But putting the reality and the concept behind it both juxtaposed and clear might give you the fullest meaning of this epic rock opus.

Une Année Sans Lumiere

This song is not a part of the Neighborhood series, since it doesn’t involve any members of the neighborhood. It’s something more personal. First of all “Une Année Sans Lumiere” needs some clarifications. It’s written half in French, so it could be a talk between Win and Regine. Let’s break it down to English:

Une Année Sans Lumiere: a year without lights.

Je monte un cheval: I’m riding a horse.

Qui porte des oeilleres : who’s wearing blinkers.

La nuit, mes yeux t’eclairent: at night (tonight), my eyes light your way.

Ne dis pas a ton pere: don’t tell your dad. Qu’il porte des oeillieres: that he’s wearing blinkers/blinders, He’s stubborn.

The song comprises two different sections. First, in which the song has its normal pace and sounds like a tranquil advice letter and the second part which is a fast-tempo horse ride, maybe the dark consequence when things are not working out.

Three different characters play roles here: the boy, the girl and the girl’s father (old man). The latter seems to be a big trouble meddling in the couple’s life, being stubborn and not seeing the reality the way he should. This “not wanting to face the reality issue” reminds some listeners of Plato’s Myth of the Cave allegory which can be beautifully relevant. Let me paste the extract of the story right here from Wikipedia:

Plato imagines a group of people who have lived chained in a cave all of their lives, facing a blank wall. The people watch shadows projected on the wall by things passing in front of a fire behind them, and begin to ascribe forms to these shadows. According to Plato, the shadows are as close as the prisoners get to seeing reality. He then explains how the philosopher is like a prisoner who is freed from the cave and comes to understand that the shadows on the wall are not constitutive of reality at all, as he can perceive the true form of reality rather than the mere shadows seen by the prisoners.

Now the truth is apparently what the boy believes in. He thinks the dad should know, if someone sees a shadow, there’s definitely an object (the reality) behind it. He sees himself as the guiding light towards the path of life. His eyes shoot sparks upon the way. He believes he’s riding a horse which is wearing blinders (or blinkers in English) and he believes the horse is the girl’s dad. Blinders are used on horses’ eyes to block their view from anything that is not in the road in order to keep the animal focused on his speed and direction.

They’re riding on the darkest streets. The lights are all out; this is the year without light. And it’s probably referring to the year of Funeral in which many of the band member’s relatives passed away and therefore it’s the name of the album. The road is dark and the future is more uncertain than ever. So it’s probably the best idea that they keep the ignorant dad buried in his denial, to keep him thoroughly unaware.

The dad character has played the villain all throughout and the protagonist again could be easily the one acting in other Neighborhood songs.

The second section of the song is the outcome of this denial. The tempo increases and the tension starts to grow as the guitars starts to sound harsher and careless. All of a sudden the shooting sparks stop shining. Win Butler’s voice starts to shiver again and switches to a higher pitch. It’s just the old Butler we know. What was the worst thing that could happen? It’s the stubborn dad being unblinkered! He’s going to run wild and annoy the rider (and her daughter too because they’re in this together). Now the rider screams out asking for help from his lover with: “Lead me to it! Come on baby lead me to it. Who turned out the light? Come on lead me to it!”. What truly has caused the lights to go out? The awareness of the horse or the desperate boy’s fault striving to control it? They missed the link somewhere, now all they have ahead is a life all out of balance with no guiding light.

Little this wonderful band does is by chance. This song is an intermission between the Neighborhood’s first and second half. That we may never know. Perhaps we may get a clue as we go on to the next song.

Neighborhood #2 (Laika)

We all may know about Manic Depression. For some, it gives birth to unreachable art, and for others it generates violence and wreaks havoc. The second episode of The Neighborhood series tells the story of a troubled brother called Alex in the family. This is the story as I’ve conceived and exceedingly read about:

Listening to “Neighborhood #2″ is both a sweet an traumatic experience. Both of them committed suicide. The story teller in this song is an innocent younger brother of the family who sees and interprets the incidents with his own childish fantasies. Alex is the protagonist as the whole song revolves around his evil actions. The location of the event could easily be Russia. You know how AF is obsessed with it. They wear Russian military uniforms during their concerts; Alexander and Laika are both Russian and the mesmerizing accordion part at the beginning of the song which is the base melody also reminds me of early 20th century Russian fairy tales as well as the Russian Revolution era.

Alex is nothing but a troublemaker, probably a vandal with destructive personality that has major issues with the family. He argues with his dad when at home and his mother should have called him “Laika”. Is he a war victim? Or he just suffers from mental disorders. He’s a disgrace for the family and a problem for the neighborhood (more generally the society).

Alex is set out for “a great adventure”. From one perspective, and if we want to take this song as the sequel to “Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)”, Alex is the same kid who was planning to escape and erase his traumatic past. He tears his family members’ images out of his pictures and scratches their names out of all his letters. So his status quo is probably the consequence of that dark childhood. He might be a true victim of manic depression.

Viewpoint #2: Alex can refer to Clockwork Orange’s Alex (from the 1991 Stanley Kubrick classic). He spoke using Russian literature. He was an unstoppable vandal and a victim of the failed rehabilitation project. His friends, the ones he referred to as “Brothers”, took revenge on him. He forgot about his family (and then comes back to them in despair). That’s adventure. And from this view the younger brothers will take revenge on Alex by making him drink his own blood.

Viewpoint #3: Alex can also refer to Christopher McCandless, the famous American wanderer who decided to forget about his family and friends and society and roam the jungles and wilderness, instead. The connection is where Chris adopts the name Alexander Supertramp for himself. There’s a book about him called Into the Wild written by Jon Krakauer and a movie with the same name directed by Sean Penn. Though, this Alex didn’t have much sinister thoughts. But this “adventure” led to his death in Alaska at age 24.

Whoever Alex is, he reminds his younger brother of the name Laika (Russian word meaning “Barker”) and Laika has the strongest reference in this song. Laika is the name of a Soviet/Russian space dog. She was the first living mammal to orbit the earth. But she was also the first orbital casualty. That means poor Laika was intended to die in space. He was not meant to return to earth. Laika is like Alex as his family sends him away, or at least this is what his younger brother pictures for him. But this very kid is also supportive of Alex. They’re brothers so he’s on Alex’s side. As a child he doesn’t understand his older brother’s problem as the poor kid is told by his parents that “Alex is bit by a vampire!” This is how parents explain difficulties to their children. So the kid shouts

Come on Alex, you can do it! Come on Alex, there’s nothing to it. If you want something, don’t ask for nothing. If you want nothing, don’t ask for something.

Just like a slogan that a kid has memorized as “Go For It!” either opposed to the parents or facing the rehabilitation issues. For the family, Alex can either be treated by painkillers and other therapy or he just has to be kicked out because it’s for his own good and it’s for the neighborhood. They do their best to find a remedy. As told by the younger sibling, Alex is bit by a vampire. Vampires cry blood. So, as a supportive brother, they (perhaps with other siblings) had to catch his tears in a cup and make him drink his own blood in order to become wilder and more sinister facing the always-enemy daddy. But another theory is when the younger siblings are not that supportive, so this “making him drink his blood” thing can be interpreted as a revenge.

So Alex departs from the family and sets off for the “great adventure” at last, but he apparently returns after a long while. The story comes to an end with one of the most brilliant verses of this decade. The fight continues:

When daddy comes home, you always start a fight, so the neighbors can dance in the police disco lights.

Deducted from a majority of people’s views, Alex returns home, picks a fight with dad and the fight leads to bloodshed. The police comes with a siren and a light that depicts something like a disco in the child’s immature mind with neighbors dancing around it. Everybody’s out to see what happened. And judging by the fate of all the people who remind us of Alex, he’s the one who dies. You can also see him entombed in his grave in the cartoonish video for the song. Funeral!

Just like multitude of other masterpieces (books or films), “Laika” leaves us all dry as you’ll never know the exact story. Whether the brothers were with Alex or against him, whether Alex was a drug addict or a WWI victim, whether the family was right or wrong and whether Alex dies or not. Some people even refer Alex to Alexander the Great. They have their own reasons, but the police thing and the disco lights will make that theory a bit unlikely. But whatever it is, “Laika” is extremely illustrative and beautiful. With the most addicting melody and a voice that shrieks in hopelessness and anxiety. Ten out of ten, period.

Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)

Funeral starts with “Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)”. The four Neighborhood songs make Funeral a semi-concept album about relationships and dismal diaries. Not yet clear the location and whereabouts of this vicinity but it’s a giant pile of forgotten manhood over there. Could be Canada, but could be Russia as well (and Russia is much more likely), or maybe the 60s Prague. Win Butler starts it off singing in grief, as though it’s a nightly hymn to disbelief and distances (from one apartment to another).

As a mid-school kid and as my first true romance experience I used to implement this attempt of window-tunnels. Me on my room and she in hers. We sometimes didn’t even have to talk. It was a small two-bedroom apartment. Therefore the distance was not that much. It was pleasing and dangerous at the same time. Neither of us wanted our parents to know about this window-talk so the lights were off as if we were sleeping.

The four “Neighborhood” songs on Funeral are also chronologically ordered. So the kid howling in anxiety and fear could easily stay a kid and not an adult. He doesn’t care about the words so he thinks of physical solutions in his immature mind for tunnels though he has his strong imagination power. It’s like the two lovers are locked inside their rooms with their parents fighting in the living room. So climbing a mutual chimney could somehow connect their hands. Well, I thought the chimney leads to open air! So, that’s another proof the story teller is still a child.

But this surreal departure is nothing temporary. The kids are singing their “Exit Music” apparently. They are least likely to return to the neighborhood. They are destined to grow old in the snow. “Snow” is probably the best metaphor found on the song and in case we don’t take it as metaphor, snow is the north. But it could literary be translated as “time and its hardships”. Snow could leave your hair grow long (this is something a school boy may need to experience because of school limitations), wipe away the past, and cause your skin become thicker but these issues all comes easy when you have reached your freedom beside your beloved soul. She will erase everything traumatic and unbearable that lies in your memory by singing you beautiful hymnals. This is where music can act as a magic, an eraser, or a painkiller.

But this memory erasing is also problematic. It makes your future look unclear and difficult. It leaves our babies nameless so it could not work out without flashbacks. Flashbacks to where we were born and then when we were named: our parents’ bedrooms and the bedrooms of our friends. Isn’t that a childish wish? Impossible but immaculate; The best possible way to start an album with. Funeral starts with a motivation, an escape plan. We’re not dealing with a happy family here: dealing with a boy named “Laika” ain’t that easy.

How I Finally Reached the Lighthouse

I chose Neon Bible as my best album in 2007 and I still don’t regret it. This is my post on This Winki’s expressing myself upon the disk. It’s nothing but terrible poetry:

I said my prayers on that gloomy midnight and walked out of the church. Stretched up my umbrella, it was cloudy. The streets seemed awakedned by my footsteps and the rain had slowly begun. I don’t know how many Sundays have come and passed, people gather and people leave. I don’t know if God has ever protected me. I just have this weird feeling. I turned left and took the road across the shore, as if I was dreaming. I fooled myself to start dreaming. I could see the lighthouse in the far away ocean. I could see it flicker and revolve around itself.

Dear God, I’m a God-fearing man. But haven’t seen anything from your side yet. The history repeats, the war conquers over all, the rain don’t stop. So, dear rain don’t stop hitting me. The moon and the cruel rain made the tidals higher. I suddenly found myself in an ocean of noise, noises from all through my life, melodies, prayers, whispering secrets. It was a rush of thoughts to my head.

Suddenly I realized a minor change in my brain, a slight change, a rapid eye movement somehow, one that I could not escape. My life, my wife and kids and all my false beliefs passing me by, but I enjoyed this redemption. I want to set myself on fire. I wanna burn my whole library. My library of hatred and politics, bombard them all and reset my mind, Mirror mirror on the wall, show me where them bombs will fall. I know a place where no planes go, I no of a place where no ships go and no car go.

There on the jetty, suddenly a small boat with oars appeared, the ocean was restless and so was I. I was walking home but where is my home? Do I belong anywhere in this city? Boarded the small boat and started paddling. Destination: The Lighthouse, the well was sometimes with me and sometimes against me, pushing me back and forth. The waves were washing me all over, they were washing my brain. Everything I was gifted.. Everything I was admired as good, everything I was punished as sin. Sin? Was I guilty for being put in this very road? Was it my fault? Dear God, I’m a God-fearing man. Dear God! Are you afraid of anything at all? Do you believe in Jesus Christ. The holiness is never found in an ocean in the midnight. What could be hiding and waiting for my arrival there in the lighthouse?

My hands went numb paddling for hours, my mind went numb calculating all the while. Keep the boat running, I know of a place where no planes go. I’m going to the lighthouse.

I jumped out of the boat as I reached the lighthouse, it was still rotating around. There was a doorway. Does anyone live here? I don’t see anyone. I climb up. I reach the top of the lighthouse. There’s a room I see with a table. There’s a black book in the middle of the table. This book is different from any other book I’ve ever seen, it looks like,… looks like it’s made of neon lights, as I open it up I see the words of wisdom, this is the holy bible, a neon bible! What does this neon bible mean to me on this gloomy midnight?

Suddenly I see the world revolving around me, there’s a long tunnel of light I see. I’m confused like I cannot tell. All my beliefs, all my religion is passing in front of my eyes, all I can see is darkness, my memories is clean from anything spiritual and religious.

I wake up! In my own bed, still gloomy, still dark, I cannot move, I cannot shake. I’m paralyzed. My body is a cage now. It’s all gone, all vanished. The neon bible was probably the answer to all this, it was somehow a soul remover machine. From this moment on, I have no idea whether things I do is wrong or right, and I’m not going to have life lines. It won’t matter to me anymore. It’s the neon bible. Not much chance for survival if the neon bible is right.

Neon Bible Album Overview

Speaking about Neon Bible is a bit hard for me personally for it may instantly become involved with prejudice and I was never about that. But anyway, I couldn’t help putting this album in my 5 star albums list (as well as choosing it as 2007′s album of the year). What I have conceived and interpreted from these pleasant streams of heartfelt sound will be kept confidential and stay untouched in my head. People can conclude different aspects of their subliminal state by listening to Neon Bible but those ones who can genuinely believe in this holy spell of disbelief are seldom seen.

Win Butler and Régine Chassagne may both be well-praised by what they accomplished on Funeral. So, in case of becoming immortal, Funeral was simply enough. It discussed family life and the traumas involved in the most honest possible way. The melodies were tender and aching simultaneously. The performance was timeless and most importantly the mood was as cohesive as a classic Charles Dickens masterpiece. Perhaps I’m going to need some extra space in another post to explain the genius songwriting of Funeral, but here I am to write on the next milestone Arcade Fire has succeeded in creating. If Funeral was Butler and Chassagne’s new born infant, Neon Bible is their grown up unfortunate son seeking something to believe and being desperate to find it. It’s more than conspicuous to see from the album title that Neon Bible is about faith and how we are all desperate to find it. No one could make a clear although dismal depiction of such a state better. The blackness that surrounds the Bible is the atmosphere that speaks for itself throughout the whole experience. Even the escape tale of “No Cars Go” that comes from the band’s self-titled EP has been created to fit in this work, not the EP! (although you hear it with much better instrumentation and mix this time). The first thing a superficial music ear expects from a huge band’s new album is the degree of its high fidelity. That’s typically what you hear on most Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead albums, in fact in their two recent works (In Rainbows and The Slip) being hi-fi and a purity (quality) in sound has been taken much more seriously than the music itself (don’t take them as low points, it’s just how they sound). On the other side of the story (the lo-fi) it’s all about experimentation and therefore it makes sense that way. Three good examples are Bee Thousand by Guided By Voices, The Microphones’ The Glow Pt. 2 and early four tape recordings of Devendra Banhart. When I first got Neon Bible through the internet I was suspicious if I have received the good quality one or not, the bit-rate was high but the sound was… you know! It was all in my mind until I bought an original copy from Bangkok and saw it’s surprisingly the same. I guess that was where I got the whole point. Arcade Fire is playing music to its most artistic state i.e. they are emphasizing on their beliefs, they are not screaming their guts out and the drums are not The Prodigy. Neon Bible is a hesitation trip (or temporary residency) in a God-forgotten city by the shore, far from anything to believe in, far from any religion to stick to and far from what you have been before. You physically wander around but literally you are walking in your subliminal mind. Is this another rapid eye movement hour or not? I cannot tell but I can tell you that this is about the time that you cannot even trust your soul for it has forsaken your body to a faraway lighthouse of lust and fatigue. The past has already destructed and the future is unwritten therefore you’re again left alone. The beginning state of this haunting trip is accurately spoken in the breathtaking opener “Black Mirror”: “I know a time is coming. All words will lose their meaning. Please show me something that isn’t mine but mine is the only kind that I relate to”. This black mirror that knows no reflection and knows not pride or vanity is somehow the wanderer’s reflection. A reflection that does not trespass your bright side, religion and faith is history now. “Keep the Car Running” is your unconscious and unaware soul leaning towards fleeing and running away from this madness. This restlessness is a key factor in Neon Bible. It never leaves you. Win Butler keeps this shivering coldness alive all across his pale voice, unlike what you heard on Funeral, he would rather keep his bravery encrypted inside his chest and out of reach therefore his high octaves are heard less.

The self-titled track is about the Bible itself (this Bible lacks the holy tag at the beginning, therefore it’s no longer worth worshiping and praising, in fact quite on the contrary). So it’s performed in a conservative sense. It’s like a whisper to an ear filled with denial, a lost catalog that warns you not to lick your fingers when you turn the page. “Intervention” is your unrevealed confessions; here in this obsolete town it’s a good opportunity to divulge it. “Black Waves/Bad Vibrations” is actually two Q&A tracks, the latter has probably the most appropriate title, it is somehow a defying respond to Beach Boys’ timeless “Good Vibrations”. Looks like Chassagne is giving survival hopes to his beloved man in French, she’s somehow rejecting all those psychedelic joy hidden in Brian Wilson’s schizophrenic existence, because there’s probably nothing left of that, all you are is this desperate creature seeking help in the midst of the midnight’s tidal waves. This dual song is the most haunting sound you hear on the album. And then comes “Ocean Of Noise”, a calm surrender from the mouth of an injured defeated soldier. If the ending orchestration doesn’t sound ethereal and superior, then what does? Breathtaking and marvelous at the same time. Another favorable masterwork comes right after this one. “The Well and the Lighthouse” is more adventurous than the rest. The restlessness has now returned with full power, your soul is not following you but you are hearing it from outside the well. That’s why you’re cold and shivering again. You’re anima is tenderly making a chorus with you, she’s completing your verses, but what is the spell of that lighthouse that keeps you apart, that prevents you from believing and is it that essential to believe in something (even love) after all this misery? Heaven is only in your head. The parentheses used in “(Antichrist Television Blues)” are here on purpose, since it’s a distraction point to that mentioned state, these murmurs are the scribbled lines caused an written by oblivion in your past, it has nothing to do with now and present. They’re somehow small evidence to the state you are now in this city. Working in a building downtown must have exhausted you and your soul. “Windowsill” is nothing but a continuation to that song in tranquility. It’s so exciting mentioning two other factors to this amnesia: MTV and World War II have been both used in the same way, has MTV been this destructing so far? Ask all indie music pioneers for a clearer answer. It can’t be that irrelevant, though. “No Cars Go” acts as the missing piece to this puzzle, Butler and wife have found shelter somewhere at last. The path of glory is somehow found. The orchestration becomes livelier and surfaces for the first time. It had been kept in depth until now. And the dismal closer “My Body Is A Cage” is still vague to me. Did Neon Bible really had to end up in sorrow? Are you the only veteran cripple soldier left? The church organ that you hear is nothing like good news. It burst into an ocean of sound with marching bands drums, the end.

(Originally posted on This Winki’s on September, 7th, 2008)