Arcade Fire

[tree_]

End of the Empire starts out so sad and depressing but then explodes into this great fun anthem

Have you just been listening to this thing on repeat?

[Ms Harmless]

End of the Empire starts out so sad and depressing but then explodes into this great fun anthem

Have you just been listening to this thing on repeat?

yeah lol

[tree_]

[tree_]

I’m trying to wait for my wife to get home before listening anymore so I don’t get burnt out too quickly

[Ms Harmless]

burn out! burn! it's called Arcade FIRE not Arcade water

[tree_]

What’s your favorite song now? Has it changed? Is it evolving? Is it a grower?

[liebzz]

I have heard Pearl Jam’s Vs. so many times in my life that when I hear Go, if the first chords to the next song aren’t for Animal, I have a moment where my brain is confused and has to recalibrate. It’s only a quick moment, but it reminds me it’s possible to hear an album too many times.

[Ms Harmless]

I have heard Pearl Jam’s Vs. so many times in my life that when I hear Go, if the first chords to the next song aren’t for Animal, I have a moment where my brain is confused and has to recalibrate. It’s only a quick moment, but it reminds me it’s possible to hear an album too many times.

haha me too

[Ms Harmless]

What’s your favorite song now? Has it changed? Is it evolving? Is it a grower?

the one I sing most and is constantly in my head is The Lightning 2; I'm not sure if that means it's my favourite, I like them all for different reasons

[tree_]

Empire is. A. Journey

[Ms Harmless]

another song that Empire reminds me of is Bohemian rhapsody

[tree_]

Yeah it’s one of those types

[Stardog Champion]

Some notes on Race and Religion now that Arcade Fire seems to in some way live/work/hang out(?) here in New Orleans a lot.

There is an actual intersection here of Race and Religious streets. At the intersection is a venue called Race and Religious that is used for weddings.

[liebzz]

Some notes on Race and Religion now that Arcade Fire seems to in some way live/work/hang out(?) here in New Orleans a lot.

There is an actual intersection here of Race and Religious streets. At the intersection is a venue called Race and Religious that is used for weddings.

I read somewhere that the album was recorded near that intersection.

[Ms Harmless]

Some notes on Race and Religion now that Arcade Fire seems to in some way live/work/hang out(?) here in New Orleans a lot.

There is an actual intersection here of Race and Religious streets. At the intersection is a venue called Race and Religious that is used for weddings.

I read somewhere that the album was recorded near that intersection.

I love that! I had a hunch this was about Win and Regine and the wedding thing confirms that

[Ms Harmless]

"at the crossroads..."

[Ello Sailor]

This thing is a bop slappin' extravaganza on headphones. It sounds so good. Loving the production.

[Monkey_Driven]

I'm sure it's been said before but WE is a ToM Petty cover. I'm convinced.

[tree_]

Yes it sounds fantastic. I think I love the whole album. Great work from Nigel Godrich

[Ms Harmless]

WE is just gorgeous

OK, I had some problems with the sequencing but now I love it

this is a concept album to me, it travels: it's their "Seeking a Family for the End of the World" album

"I gotta get this spirit out of me, this anxiety" SO evokes Neon Bible to me, using the televangelist language of demon possession and miraculous exorcism

then End of the Empire is so theatrical, filmic, and culminates the first half (the age of anxiety) with the literal apocalypse (after the fireworks in Prelude), with watching America burn, and then the words "I unsubscribe" AND "she unsubscribes"

at first it felt like a generic "she" who unsubscribes, but now I feel like it's a joint statement between two people in love (Win and Regine?): WE unsubscribe

and the outro feels like the end of a black and white movie to me? or like one of those 20th Century Fox title cards?

this is followed up by "waiting for the lightning", and then love songs between Win and Son, then Win and Regine (the finale); at first I found that finale a tiny bit underwhelming and not the sonic BANG that I wanted to end the story

but now, I realise that "Race and Religion is the direct opposite of "I / she unsubscribes" ; WE went "on this trip together", and now "WE will make it together; we will survive the end as a unit"

finally culminating in WE:

"I wanna get wild
I wanna get free
Would you want to get off this ride with me?
I wanna get down
Get down on one knee (marriage AND worship / reverence)
Would you want to get off this ride with me?

I wanna give in
I wanna give out
Wanna give away everything in this house
I wanna get going
Before the fires burn out
You can give away everything in this house" (packing up for the apocalypse)

again, the whole thing is very Neon Bible, where "I don't wanna live in my Father's house no more", BUT "WE can reach the sea" (I'm SURE I hear the ghost of that "we" before the album closes) and "I know a place...!" so there is hope and somewhere for us to go