The Morning News

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Currently: How far back must we go to find an American act of national decency? Seventy years, it turns out, says Birnbaum. http://tmne.ws/14701
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Albums

The Arcade Fire, Funeral

A predictable choice? Fine. It’s the name on everybody’s lips…even the band’s own: Lead singer Win Butler quipped, “Hi, we’re…

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Andrew Womack
Andrew Womack is a founding editor of The Morning News. He is always working on the next installment of the Albums of the Year series at TMN. You can and follow his Twitter updates here.
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A predictable choice? Fine. It’s the name on everybody’s lips…even the band’s own: Lead singer Win Butler quipped, “Hi, we’re Flavor of the Month,” at the band’s show last week at Mercury Lounge. So everyone’s currently nuts over the Arcade Fire, and with good reason, because it truly is a phenomenal album, if not one that’s difficult to place. After all, what do you get when you combine the lead-off track’s unmistakable Springsteen bravado (think “Thunder Road”), Pixies-sized vocal melodies, a healthy dose of indie-southern-gothic (sort of, kind of like Black Heart Procession), rock riffs straight from Sticky Fingers, and pretty sure some Nick Cave in here and definitely Björk, and, um, Wings? Well, this, apparently.

You get an album that defies comparison, or at least one that will have you stuck inside your headphones, a list of bands who oh this sounds like this that you keep adding to, a list that quickly reaches absurdity. You’ll lose track, because you admire the music too much, and you’d rather quit thinking and instead get back to listening. So you do.

—Published October 19, 2004