More on Arcade Fire and the Suburban Soul (and Self-Promotion)

Paul Harvey

Monday I posted briefly about the Grammys, including surprise winner for Best Album, Arcade Fire. In (as Luke Harlow would say) the best self-promotional RiAH tradition, I draw your attention to Religion Dispatches today, where I develop those thoughts on Arcade Fire at greater length, with a piece about their current record The Suburbs and previous efforts Funeral and Neon Bible. A little excerpt below, and then you can follow the link from there:

Has there been a major pop group more concerned with exploring personal anxieties, aspirations, and narratives through music defined so fundamentally by religious themes? The turmoil and paranoia of the last decade—wars, attacks, economic crashes, myriad color-coded fears—run through Arcade Fire’s three full-length records: Funeral, Neon Bible, and The Suburbs. The newest effort induces a tour of previous decades, when suburbia seemed (but only seemed) to offer placidity and refuge from the wilderness downtown.

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