The Arcade Fire

The Arcade Fire’s trajectory from Indie obscurity to popular acclaim is a rock-and-roll fairy tale. Once upon a time, Win Butler left Texas suburbia for snowy Canada. There, in the ivory towers of McGill University, he met the pixiesque chanteuse, Régine Chassagne. One day, Win attended Régine’s jazz concert and awed by her vocal talent, convinced her to start a band. They fell in-love, of course. In one year’s time, Win and Régine assembled a seven-person band, exchanged vows, and brokered a deal with Merge Records. The band completed “Funeral” in 2004 and the album blew everyone—Pitchfork, U2, Chris Martin, etc.—away. Three years later “Neon Bible” debuted at No. 2 and garnered stellar reviews from critics. Having successfully eluded the sophomore curse, Win, Régine and the rest of Arcade Fire are poised to live happily ever after.

“Funeral” is a ten-track lament that eulogizes people, places and various concepts without being overly maudlin. One sees this in “Haiti,” the album’s eighth track. The bilingual (French/English) song alludes to Reginé’s family’s flight from the island, then under Duvalier’s dictatorship. The image of an idyllic Haitian beach is summoned by the soothing sound of waves at the beginning of the song and instead of focusing on vengeance, the lyrics focus on the refugee’s triumphant spirit; on homecoming instead of leaving home: “Rien n’arrete nos espirits (Nothing stops our spirits). Guns can’t kill what soldiers can’t see.”

“(In the Backseat)” is the final track and also “Funeral’s” emotional finale. In the song, the mourner is narrating her ride to a burial while sitting in the backseat. The car is a metaphor for the loss of control one experiences during the grieving process. While the driver has active control over the car, the backseat passenger is just along for the ride. The instrumentation supporting Régine’s delicate and sometimes breathless voice is especially powerful in this track. Also, Sara Neufeld plays the violin with a poignancy that pushes the strings to the forefront alongside the vocals. As the song progresses, more instruments are added and Régine’s voice gets louder, and by the end of the song, Régine crescendos to breaking point. Her vocals in the outro (the ooh, ooh, oohs) are haunting—a wailing sound symbolizing emotional overflow. The band is weeping for themselves and for anyone who has ever lost a loved one.

Contrasting with “Funeral’s” straightforward lyrics and storytelling is “Neon Bible’s” dense symbolic imagery. Water is a leit motif used to explore weighty subjects, and to borrow the band’s chosen theme, emotional gulfs. In five out of the eleven tracks, the singer (usually Win) sings fearfully about the ocean. For Win, the ocean evokes memories of family sailing trips out on the Texas Gulf Coast. In a recent interview with “New York Times Magazine,” Win spoke about a nightmare he had about being stranded in a boat, out on the ocean, in the middle of the night. Win alludes to this nightmare in “Bad Vibrations/Black Wave.” In the first half of “Bad Vibrations/Black Wave,” Régine sings about the ocean as a means for escape,“We can reach the sea, They won’t follow me,” and as a way to “run from the memory.” While the instrumentation at the beginning of the song has a faster tempo, Win’s solo in the last half is much slower and helps to convey a dire tone. Supported by heavy thumping and an eerie sounding choir, Win’s lyrics in this half shout out a warning, “Stop now before it’s too late…There’s a great black wave in the middle of the sea, for me, for you.”

I first heard Arcade Fire in January of 2005. My friend sent me “Neighborhood #1” over Instant Messenger and after listening to the song a few times, I typed out a brief review: I was overwhelmed—the accelerando! Piano! Strings! The ooh, ohh, oohs!—I loved it. At that time, the song stirred within me an emotion that I couldn’t quite peg but could only liken to homesickness. To this day, I have a cathartic experience every time I hear or see an Arcade Fire performance and I know that I’m not the only one. The band’s ability to speak to people, to wake them up—aesthetically, politically, and emotionally—make them the most popular Indie-Rock band in the world.

Le Fin