it's in the interwebs...

it moves.

Aside from "Reflecktor," "Porno" might be my favorite track.

Pretty interesting to hear James Murphy's influence on this thing.

not listening until then.

Especially the second disc. Only band that can make a song called "porno" that will catch you crying if you don't watch out.
Going to be interesting to see how their appropriation of that Haitian carnival sound goes down. They've pretty much proven at this point that they aren't just drive-by Haiti supporters, but they've never gone to this depth with it.

I need more Régine and less Win.

just wish they figured out a way to wrap that up better than the last track.

odd to say, but I wish this came out a few months earlier
doesn't have much of an autumn feel to it, imo

def a warm weather, windows down type of album

gonna be gettin repeated spins

The first half has a Sandinista-like craziness that I was not prepared for (in fact I'd give my right arm to hear Strummer on a couple of these tracks). Some of the best stuff I've heard them do.

The second half comes to such a crawl that it kills all of the spontaneous joy of the first. It's the Arcade Fire I expected and have grown tired of.

Just first impressions, I'm sure the second half will grow on me a bit, it was a jarring shift on first listen though.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/arcade-fires-reflektor-still-devoid-of-wit-subtlety-and-danger-now-with-bongos/2013/10/28/6471097a-4004-11e3-9c8b-e8deeb3c755b_story.html

Arcade Fire’s ‘Reflektor’: Still devoid of wit, subtlety and danger, now with bongos

By Chris Richards, Published: October 28

Look, I’m sure they’re very nice people, but on their fourth album, “Reflektor,” Arcade Fire still sound like gigantic dorks with boring sex lives.

After winning a Grammy for album of the year in 2011, they’re still the biggest rock band on the block, still making music mysteriously devoid of wit, subtlety and danger. And now, they’re really into bongo drums, too. We should all be repulsed. Only partially because of the bongos.

Mostly because this is rock music that lazily presumes life on the digital plane has made us so numb, so unable to feel for ourselves, that the only way to reach our hearts is by applying a pneumatic hammer to our classic rock pleasure centers. Bowie! Springsteen! Talking Heads! Blam-blam-blam! Bludgeoning and vacant, “Reflektor” is an album that both condescends and sells itself short, over and over again, for 76 insufferable minutes.

The band’s problems are laid bare early with “We Exist,” a mid-tempo sulker that initially sounds like Fleetwood Mac trying to moonwalk through “Billie Jean” in uncomfortable footwear. Frontman Win Butler — still as dreadful a lyricist as ever — tries to correct his charisma deficiency with an affected sneer: “You’re down on your knees, begging us please, praying that we don’t exist.” (Dramatic pause.) “We exist!”

They exist! But who are they? After four albums, Arcade Fire are still struggling to present themselves as distinct and compelling human beings. Their anthems feel like cavernous vessels vast enough to stow the most bloated of emotions, but it’s always been on the listener to fill them up.

Too frequently on “Reflektor,” Butler’s lyrics assume a murky us-against-them posture. It’s intended to feel like an insidery group hug, but it only highlights his band’s chronic personality gap. And when co-vocalist Regine Chassagne materializes to play Butler’s vocal foil, she toggles between cheerleadery English and breathy French, because — ooh-la-la — it wraps these bland songs in a thin cloak of cosmopolitan sophistication.

Butler is at his most irritating with “Normal Person,” pulling David Byrne’s oversize blazer out of the closet and asking, “Is anything as strange as a normal person? Is anyone as cruel as a normal person?”

You tell us, dude. When a band this massively popular, this risk-averse, this patently un-weird takes heartfelt shots at the “norms,” it’s hard to decide whether to laugh, barf or weep for the future of rock-and-roll itself.

Because great art should crack away at what came before, right? This band has spent the past nine years dutifully re-creating it, namely the ponderous grandeur of U2. And on “Reflektor,” they’ve done it with the help of producer James Murphy, the former LCD Soundsystem frontman whose good taste has now been thrown in question.

He has swaddled “Reflektor” in warm analog synthesizers and stretched it over a bongo-popping grid, doing his best imitation of Brian Eno, the guru behind David Bowie’s “Low,” Talking Heads’ “Remain in Light” and U2’s “Achtung Baby.”

But “Reflektor” isn’t neoclassicism. It’s something conservative pretending to be something bold. It’s Sandra Bullock’s hack dialogue in “Gravity.” It’s square, sexless, deeply unstylish, painfully obvious rock music. It’s an album with a song called “Porno” that you could play for your parents. It’s fraud.

>http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/arcade-fires-reflektor-still-devoid-of-wit-subtlety-and-danger-now-with-bongos/2013/10/28/6471097a-4004-11e3-9c8b-e8deeb3c755b_story.html
>
>Arcade Fire’s ‘Reflektor’: Still devoid of wit, subtlety and
>danger, now with bongos
>
>By Chris Richards, Published: October 28
>
>Look, I’m sure they’re very nice people, but on their fourth
>album, “Reflektor,” Arcade Fire still sound like gigantic
>dorks with boring sex lives.
>
>After winning a Grammy for album of the year in 2011, they’re
>still the biggest rock band on the block, still making music
>mysteriously devoid of wit, subtlety and danger. And now,
>they’re really into bongo drums, too. We should all be
>repulsed. Only partially because of the bongos.
>
>Mostly because this is rock music that lazily presumes life on
>the digital plane has made us so numb, so unable to feel for
>ourselves, that the only way to reach our hearts is by
>applying a pneumatic hammer to our classic rock pleasure
>centers. Bowie! Springsteen! Talking Heads! Blam-blam-blam!
>Bludgeoning and vacant, “Reflektor” is an album that both
>condescends and sells itself short, over and over again, for
>76 insufferable minutes.
>
>The band’s problems are laid bare early with “We Exist,” a
>mid-tempo sulker that initially sounds like Fleetwood Mac
>trying to moonwalk through “Billie Jean” in uncomfortable
>footwear. Frontman Win Butler — still as dreadful a lyricist
>as ever — tries to correct his charisma deficiency with an
>affected sneer: “You’re down on your knees, begging us please,
>praying that we don’t exist.” (Dramatic pause.) “We exist!”
>
>They exist! But who are they? After four albums, Arcade Fire
>are still struggling to present themselves as distinct and
>compelling human beings. Their anthems feel like cavernous
>vessels vast enough to stow the most bloated of emotions, but
>it’s always been on the listener to fill them up.
>
>Too frequently on “Reflektor,” Butler’s lyrics assume a murky
>us-against-them posture. It’s intended to feel like an
>insidery group hug, but it only highlights his band’s chronic
>personality gap. And when co-vocalist Regine Chassagne
>materializes to play Butler’s vocal foil, she toggles between
>cheerleadery English and breathy French, because — ooh-la-la —
>it wraps these bland songs in a thin cloak of cosmopolitan
>sophistication.
>
>Butler is at his most irritating with “Normal Person,” pulling
>David Byrne’s oversize blazer out of the closet and asking,
>“Is anything as strange as a normal person? Is anyone as cruel
>as a normal person?”
>
>You tell us, dude. When a band this massively popular, this
>risk-averse, this patently un-weird takes heartfelt shots at
>the “norms,” it’s hard to decide whether to laugh, barf or
>weep for the future of rock-and-roll itself.
>
>Because great art should crack away at what came before,
>right? This band has spent the past nine years dutifully
>re-creating it, namely the ponderous grandeur of U2. And on
>“Reflektor,” they’ve done it with the help of producer James
>Murphy, the former LCD Soundsystem frontman whose good taste
>has now been thrown in question.
>
>He has swaddled “Reflektor” in warm analog synthesizers and
>stretched it over a bongo-popping grid, doing his best
>imitation of Brian Eno, the guru behind David Bowie’s “Low,”
>Talking Heads’ “Remain in Light” and U2’s “Achtung Baby.”
>
>But “Reflektor” isn’t neoclassicism. It’s something
>conservative pretending to be something bold. It’s Sandra
>Bullock’s hack dialogue in “Gravity.” It’s square, sexless,
>deeply unstylish, painfully obvious rock music. It’s an album
>with a song called “Porno” that you could play for your
>parents. It’s fraud.
>

and We Exist, come to think of it, which is a bit of a hammy anti-homophobia anthem.

But "Normal Person" isn't about what the reviewer projects as an attack on him, it's pretty plainly a comment on what advertisers and corporations project as "normal people" that we should all ascribe to becoming that no-one, no matter how actually "normal" they may be, are. It's not an "I'm an outsider, you're not" song. It's a "nobody is really an insider given those standards, no matter how much you may chase it".

Now, Normal Person could likely be scrapped (along with Flashbulb Eyes) to cull the album down, but it's also presented in two pieces because the first is a broader commentary piece and the second a tragic love melodrama.

>
>Look, I’m sure they’re very nice people, but on their fourth
>album, “Reflektor,” Arcade Fire still sound like gigantic
>dorks with boring sex lives.
>

Only someone with a boring sex life would even think to say let alone write something like this.

Stopped reading after that.

anyone who uses the "these guys sound like dorks who don't get laid" attack as a way to discredit music instantly makes me tune out anything they have to say

Each album I try, each time I'm like *meh*

█▆▇▅▇█▇▆▄▁▃
Big PEMFin H & z's
"I ain't no entertainer, and ain't trying to be one. I am 1 thing, a musician." © Miles

"When the music stops he falls back in the abyss."

I lay it all on James Murphy, he keeps the proceedings popping and kind of tones down their (VERY) boring excesses even though the tracks are longer then whats expected in a pop format.

Not album of the year by any means, but its solid.

I agree first album of theirs that doesn't put me to sleep.

Gonna listen to this later, but I have a feeling it's going to be a bloated, pretentious mess.

I loved the Suburbs but that was probably 2-3 songs too long. Two discs of Arcade Fire is way too much.

There's only 13 songs here. It's mainly the length of songs that could have been shaved down. Kinda suffers like JT's albums where the songs are long for no reason.

This fucking BANGS, goodness gracious.

Particularly the second one after the first refrain.

I find myself kind of at a crossroads with this album, I think its good but at the same time there aren't really that many remarkable moments on it. It is surely, for me, not their best album, because like everything since Funeral.....it doesn't even come close to the quality of that album (which I thought was amazing). Despite the fact that it IS long, I don't think it felt as long as The Suburbs (I know, I make no sense) and I really have no beef with the length (ok, they could've cut that last track a little bit). Right now I'd probably give it a 7/10. All of this leaves me puzzled as to the overall critical acclaim of it so far, but I guess the acclaim for them is to be expected at this point.

I didn't like Neon Bible that much. I though the Suburbs was decent to good....this album on the first listen is possibly better though. This is all first listen rambling though, so I'll probably have a more solid (or even different) opinion by next week (I actually started out NOT loving Funeral then loved it....and kind of the opposite happened with The Suburbs). My favorite track is probably the title track..."We Exist" and "Its Never Over" were pretty cool as well

There's some nice moments (someone's doing a decent johnny marr impersonation on "you already know"?), i dig the carnival raveup, and afterlife---but "normal person" sounds like it could be the "edgy" track on a jonas bros album (Probably my first official cringe listening to an album of theirs). James murphy shouldve ghostwrote the lyrics too (and i know hes not a great lyricist either)

A&r people should get in the practice of advising singers before releasing their first album (and they have that hunch its gonna blow them up majorly) to just write as many lyrics as they can. Like 10 albums worth if possible. Pretty sure win suffers from that pressure of knowing millions will scrutinize every line hes committing to paper these days--and hes "bricking" most of them

Lots of lush synths and vibe even with the rock jabs and production

Unlike the length of the Timberlake tracks (which are the very definition of "bloated"), these tracks seem to build slowly and grow as they go along, which, based on what I've heard of him (LCD and various remixes) is a James Murphy staple, and it's something that I wish bands would do MORE of... the method and motive behind the extended songs is far different than the ones heard on the Timberlake albums, where the track ends at a reasonable time, then the beat restarts for another 3-4 minutes of vamping that isn't very compelling.

I, for one, have always been a fan of albums with great sequencing, and this record has that, imo...

But even if you don't buy the narrative that may or may not be there, I like the sonics of the album a lot...

My only wish is that the grooves, such as there are, were more, "in the pocket," so to speak...

________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Gotta hear both sides

for bands like Arcade Fire.

People try so hard to dissect this shit that they completely miss the point and that is in the visceral, gripping nature of the songs. I could get with the themes here and the songs really captured those to great effect. I felt the same way when I hear The Suburbs. Nothing moved me like that song did for years when I first heard it. The inflection in Win Butler's voice and his earnest and endearing longing and acceptance of fate was fuckin heartbreaking and inspiring at the same time. Incredible song. Reflektor in it's own way captures a similar juxtaposition of isolation and love against all odds. It's hold a mirror to us and lets us see what we are showing the world that we may not see. What we may not see in each other.

I should have known that James Murphy was involved.

Get rid of Here Comes the Night Time II, Supersymmetry, and Flashbulb Eyes and you have a one disc record easily.

http://www.electricalaudio.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4114&start=460#p1730783

Personally, I hate everything Ive heard from this band and this album is no exception; they set off my U2 radar and that is reason enough for me to throw them under the bus-it didn't stop my hate for Radiohead or Muse but instead is a constant in my life that goes 30+years back and whatever form these aesthetics manifest themself in needs to be dismissed and shitted upon. throwing in very marginal nods to Eno or Talking Heads/Remain in Light doesn't help becausew that album is some bullshit and marginally more than hot air to begin with. Anyway, fuck this band, TWO times (to paraphrase Mr monotone)