As my faithful readers will readily attest to, I love to talk about the music I have been listening to and enjoying. I don’t consider myself some sort of great music critic or elitist but I definitely have strong opinions that I’m not afraid to share with whoever will listen. I think this makes me more of a ‘blowhard’ than an ‘elitist.’ Oh well.
On that note, I have been taking a look at the music I have really enjoyed over the last couple of years and decided to blog about my findings in the ever-popular list format.
Specifically, a top ten list of my favorite albums released since Jan. 1, 2006.
An important caveat: This list is not meant to be read through the eyes of music criticism so much as personal opinion. I love these albums and they were my favorites for possibly completely subjective reasons,.. and I may or may not make any attempt to tell you why they should be objectively lauded.
Lastly, I would love to hear your list or alternate opinions/choices. Tell me why I’m full of it about Radiohead or why I totally missed the boat on Springsteen’s ‘Magic’ (yep, not on my list). The list will count down from number 10 with a new album each day.. Here we go!
10) Neon Bible (The Arcade Fire)
You may have heard that people like me existed, but never actually met one of us. I’m one of the guys who never really bought into the whole ‘Funeral’ craze. Was it a great album? Sure. Did it alter music history forever? No. So, I watched the hype around the debut of ‘Neon Bible’ with more than a little trepidatious resentment. Remember when everyone was frothing at the mouth over The Shins? Yeah, it felt kind of like that..
I ended up getting the album when it came out and gave it a listen. It was enjoyable and certainly a departure from ‘Funeral’ in some key ways. Compositionally it felt far more extroverted, like it had something to hide. This one was a slow-burner, though.. It hung around the top of my iTunes playlist for awhile and it just kept growing on me. One day at the Kafe Kerouac, I listened to the whole album from front to back in one sitting while staring off into space. It was in this moment that I understood the frenzy around the band and its music. They haven’t changed my life and I’m not placing them in any sort of pantheon, but I acknowledge their greatness and consider myself an informal non-dues-paying member of the bandwagon.
The strangest part of this whole saga is that my newfound appreciation for the music made me go back and reinvestigate ‘Funeral’ to see what I had missed… and I still couldn’t quite buy into it. There are some fantastic individual songs on that album, but as a whole I just don’t love it. So, for now, I find myself as one of the few lonely fans of The Arcade Fire who prefer ‘Neon Bible’ to ‘Funeral.’ Are there any more of you out there?.. or am I just plain crazy?
I don’t listen to funeral. Its too hipster for me. However, not only does Neon Bible share a title with a book by John Kennedy Toole that I love, Neon Bible is also dark like the oil that pumped through Daniel Day Lewis’s veins when he played family man and oil baron Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood. And that is why I like that album. That and that pipe organ which sounded so cheesy on the first couple listens really turned out to turn the epic factor to eleven. And they recorded it in a church, so it must be worship music.
By: peter elbow on April 22, 2008
at 7:58 pm
Say what you will about Funeral, its hipster cred, whatever. I feel your skepticism, your disdain for trendiness in all of its nihilistic iterations.
But then I listen to the “Neighborhood” series (without the songs in between) and I come to this line in the middle of Neighborhood #4, which is an existential attempt at dealing with aging and the future which one will influence but not inhabit:
“My eyes are covered by the hands of my unborn kids/but my heart keeps watching through the skin of my eyelids”
And for whatever its worth, this too-old-to-be-hipster says, “hell yeah.” That’s the bittersweet taste I always get in my mouth when I think about my children as adults and me as old and, eventually, dead. It rings more true than 99.9% of the music out there. And Neon Bible matches Funeral for that authentic angst when faced with the everyday injustices of trying to live. What a great band.
By: e on April 22, 2008
at 10:55 pm
e,
I agree with you on (at least the first 3 parts of) the “Neighborhood” series. Those songs are utterly fantastic. However, the rest of the album comes off as weak in light of those songs. I keep thinking that I’m going to listen to “Funeral” one day and it will all click, but it just hasn’t happened yet. I don’t even think it’s because of the hipster quality,.. I like plenty of music that happens to be trendy.
I appreciate your perspective on the album from the viewpoint of a father,.. that def. adds something for me. And I want to stress that I think “Funeral” is a very good album,.. but just not everything it has been hyped to be, at least to me.
By: themostbrianever on April 22, 2008
at 11:03 pm
crazy talk.
By: learningtobepeter on April 23, 2008
at 8:02 pm
but seriously, i really really like both albums. I think the difference is this: The issues that Win and company address on Neon Bible don’t touch me in nearly the same way that they do on Funeral.
I try to be as cognizant as possible when it comes to reality and perceptions of reality that we are force-fed every day by the media and our cultural institutions, and though i’m not a particularly bright guy, i do notice the thoughtlessness and utter contradiction rampant in our society.
Hyperbolic as it sounds, Funeral makes me attempt to think about life the way it really is. And while they (or i) might not be right in the resulting conclusions, at least my brain has been opened a bit more to the world around me. That’s what all literature and art do for me.
The lyrics of Rebellion just kill me:
“Sleeping is giving in
No matter what the time is
Sleeping is giving in
So lift those heavy eyelids
People say that you’ll die
Faster than without water
But we know it’s just a lie
Scare your son, scare your daughter
People say that your dreams
Are the only things that save you
Come on baby, in our dreams
We can live our misbehavior
Every time you close your eyes
Lies, lies!
People try and hide the night
Underneath the covers
People try and hide the light
Underneath the covers
Come on, hide your lovers
Underneath the covers
Come on, hide your lovers
Underneath the covers
Hiding from your brothers
Underneath the covers
Come on, hide your lovers
Underneath the covers
People say that you’ll die
Faster than without water
But we know it’s just a lie
Scare your son, scare your daughter
Scare your son, scare your daughter
Now here’s the sun, it’s alright! (Lies!)
Now here’s the moon, it’s alright! (Lies!)
Now here’s the sun, it’s alright! (Lies!)
Now here’s the moon, it’s alright (Lies!)
But every time you close your eyes (Lies!)”
As you grow up question the world. Question reality. Don’t sleep your way through life accepting the way things are or seem to be. Bigger things are possible. You know what, the Arcade Fire make me love Jesus more. eep! mmm…counter-culturalism.
Pantheon-wise, Funeral is one of my five favorite albums ever.
By: learningtobepeter on April 23, 2008
at 8:57 pm
Thanks, Peter. That’s the kind of response I was hoping for.. Music, like most art, is all about context. ‘Funeral’ never hit me like it hit you, but I’m sure there are many albums I love that don’t necessarily impact you – Thank God we’re all unique and not part of some homogenized dystopia.
(I love those lyrics too, btw. Rebellion may be my favorite song on the album, even more than the Neighborhood series)
By: themostbrianever on April 23, 2008
at 9:58 pm