Arcade Fire - Everything Now (2017 album)

Anger? Interesting? In the SH Forums? I'd call it ordinary, instead ;P

Regine's singing is definitely flawed, but she has a special passion that redeems it. Sprawl II on SNL is what made me love them (a short love, cause I found out that song is not representative of their general output) and shows it all.
I think part of the weirdness of the recorded voice is the possibly severe amount of autotune it is passed through. Childlike, yes, but almost unrealistically perfectly pitched.

I do. And the Pitchfork one sums up my idea of the album quite well.
But it took me month to "get" Reflektor. So...
But it took me much less to get bored by it. So...

 

The same essential discussion is circling a few other forums I use - I'm siding with Pitchfork (ugh, I don't like typing that!) on this one, but I have followed Arcade Fire since the beginning and I'll admit some of what the Pitchfork review leans on, is "expectation", what they "should" be doing, some of which is tripe.

The record simply doesn't move me, except into turning it off. It doesn't hit much of what I used to love the band for, nor does the material outside that perhaps narrow box hit the spot for me.

I could dress that up into 2 thousand words, but that's as plainly and honestly as I can put it

 

Why would it not being representative of their general output make you love it less? Merely curious.

Or do you mean your love of Arcade Fire was short lived?

 

The second one

I still like them but that song gave me expectations they didn't fulfill.
I was just imagining another band.
Oh boy, it's the same with people, isn't it?

 

Never been a fan of AF though they made at least 10 super good tunes. Outstanding maybe. Also I am still amused how they became that big in the world (of course not that big as were U2 in their prime, even not that big as U2 now). I checked new album once. Flow is great, interesting ideas here and there. Never go deep in their lyrics especially.

 

Same thing happened here. I fell in love with Sprawl II and then quickly realized that Win sings pretty much everything else and sounds like a Bono wannabe without the pipes.

 

I don't really care about reviews but looking at Metacritic there's zero denying that "Everything Now" is getting substantially less love than the albums that came before it.

"Reflektor" holds an 80% score - which is respectable for a fourth album - but "EN" only has 66%. It's weird because I really think the album is well done but apparently not many people seem to agree.

Let's see how "Everything Now" will be regarded once it's successor comes out.

 

If (and it's a big if) I read them, is just to see if someone else thinks the same as me
I've seen praise and hate but yes, overall I have your same feeling.
Generally it seems to be disappointing. Either for musical reasons or for a general direction the band is taking.

 

Bland, boring, uninspired and unoriginal.

Arcade Fire define what I have disliked about almost every new band/artist I have heard for the past 20 years or so. They all sound to me like they're musically regurgitating something that was done better in the past by someone artistically superior to them.

To me Arcade Fire = all style and not much substance.

 

Oh c'mon man, don't sugarcoat it!...

 

To each his own, but I think that's a little excessive.

But I agree about the uniformation of new music acts.
Especially indie: so much people seem to be repeating the same clichés.

 

You don't like The Strokes?

 

So in U2 metaphors, we are we now? Is "Everything Now" their "Pop"? The flawed but somewhat OK last stand before succumbing to your own classicism?

 

Unfair to U2 to put Arcade Fire anywhere near them. U2 has an actual singer

 

This is one of the most disappointing albums I've ever heard. I can't believe that a band that meant this much to me would put out this garbage. "Everything Now" is awesome, but the rest, for the most part is embarrassing. I really can't understand how the band thought "this is good music!"

 

Ever heard most of McCartneys solo records ? Some great music a lot of terrible lyrics.

 

I have the same question, that seems to have gone unanswered... I'm also curious if its public whether the album was recorded on tape or digital, or a mixture.

 

I'm the same way. I give an album a chance before reading the reviews, because I feel like I get unfairly biased before listening for myself.

So I have EN a chance. I own every single AF album to this point. But for some reason, I had this reservation before buying the new one.

Hurray for Amazon Music! Streamed it all. Twice. And just think it's a weaker, lighter, boring-er version of Reflektor.

Then I read the reviews and they were right on. Pitchfork totally guts the album, and I agree.

WHERE. IS. THE. MUSICIANSHIP?

 

What about Creature Comfort? That sounds like a good Arcade Fire cut to my ears.

 

Win Butler is no Bono, for sure, but he can sing. He has a bit a rough quality that can be a bit hard to take, but I think he does a good job given his obvious limitations.

I like most of the album a lot, but your sentiment is dead-on in regards to Peter Pan. I can't believe no one in the band or working with them in the studio didn't have the sense to realize what crap that song is.

I would easily put Creature Comfort in my Arcade Fire top 10 now. Love that song.

 

So Bono is regarded as good singer? Never thought of it like that

 

Might not be everyone's cup of tea, but he has the instrument for sure.

 

Yeah, I should maybe rephrase it to that (in my opinion) he just isn't quite good enough or distinct enough of s singer for them to ever really be the sort of mega U2 level band they want to be or we just assume they want to be. Regine isn't the greatest singer either but she's far more distinctive and has better presence and her voice cuts in a way that Win's doesn't, so it's unfortunate for some of us that he's the main singer.

 

The Pitchfork review totally is everything (now) it accuses this album of. It's really joyless. The NME got it much better. Maybe it's an American/ European thing? I'll stick by it, "Everything Now" is a very good album.

.... and regarding your quest for "MUSICIANSHIP"; why not get your old Dave Matthews cds out??

 

I read an interesting comment on youtube.
Totally conspiration theory, but a fun idea.
Peter Pan and Chemistry are deliberately crappy songs to baffle the pretentious critics and see how far they can go to before they get busted.