Arcade Fire Funeral - Best songs?

Funeral by Arcade Fire is one of the most discussed rock albums of the 21st century. Though not as commercially succesful than the big nineties rock albums (Nevermind, Ok Computer, etc) it was a significant moment in time for a generation of rock music fans and earned the band a strong and steady following and set the bar very high for the rest of their career.

I feel individual songs are not discussed that much though. Which ones are your favorites? Mine would definitely be the opener. The whole crescendo thing going through the song, with everything getting more intense as the track goes (Win's vocals, the drums) was mind-blowing on first listen and still is. The energic, passionnate earnestness of that song encapsulates everything that made the band great in its beginning.

Then I'd vote for Crown of Love and Rebellion as runner ups.

What would be yours?

 

You can pick 3:

Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)
Rebellion (Lies)

Along with Wake Up, the album is built on those strong tracks - sometimes it feels as though the other tracks exist just to provide breathing room.

Love the album, and besides a few tracks on The Suburbs they never really came close again.

 

Strong record. Honestly I listen to the whole thing start-to-finish so I don't think I can single out the best tracks. Looking forward to the discussion.

 

Power Out and Lies sit far above everything else, IMO.

Even though I think a few songs are better, Laika is probably the song I listen to the most besides those two, so it got my other vote.

 

Reflektor.

 

Tunnels remains one of the most powerful songs I’ve ever heard. Never gets old after all of these years. This album as a whole remains incredibly important to me, which seems to be a widely held opinion.

 

the entire album is actually perfect.

 

Power, Lies (no Corruption) and their “big” live performance song, Wake Up.

But it’s great throughout. One of the best debuts of all time.

 

Crown of Love, Wake Up & Tunnels.... Seeing them tonight always a brilliant live band, but this is still their best.

 

Laika, Power Out and Rebellion are classics, I don't even need no more Arcade Fire if I have those three. Happy as Larry (and he's notorious for being happy!) I've seen those songs live.

 

Tunnels and Laika are a great start to this album, otherwise I voted for Wake Up just because its their original classic, but was close on Power Out

 

I don’t know what any of the songs are called apart from Wake Up and Haiti...it’s one of those listen from start to finish records...

 

Looks like I'm in the majority here. Power Out's my favorite Arcade Fire song from any of their albums. Rebellion and Wake Up would follow, imo.

 

The album plays like one long song...it’s a concept album in the vein of 70s rock. Don’t know if I’ve ever listened to a track off the record unless it’s on the radio or at a sport event, i always play it from start to finish. It starts strong with Tunnels and just never lets up...as highly rated as it is, it’s a truly underrated classic.

That being said...Tunnels is just awesome - from the intensity of the song to the melody to the incredible imagery of the lyrics. Kind of like Bone Machine from the Pixies’ Surfer Rosa, it proudly announces the band and their sound, which while not all that unusual isn’t quite like anything that had been heard before.

I chose Rebellion and Wake Up as my other 2 tunes mostly due to how much fun they are live, but that changes depending on the day - Laika was once my favorite, In the Backseat is amazing, Power’s Out is incredible (especially live) - hard to pick just 3 tunes on such an incredible album.

I hope they return to this sound in the future - I like all their albums, but most are kind of like watching Robin Williams do drama rather than comedy...yeah they’re good at it and the songs are good - but there’s a kind of music that only Arcade Fire can make in this world, and if they don’t do it, then nobody will.

 

Saw them in Glasgow last week. Absolutely sensational, but the songs from funeral took the roof off. Cathartic. Especially for Will...

 

Arcade Fire has enough talent to keep putting out good records, to varying levels (the last two are both spotty, but have plenty of good stuff each), but I don't think it is realistic to expect another Funeral. That was a lightning in a bottle record, and you just don't capture that twice.

 

In The Backseat is way in the lead for me, followed up by Lies and Power Out. It's all pretty marvelous though, isn't it?

 

Indeed, great album overall, contains a number of my AF favorites ... very interesting the different ways fans see this, such as "In the Backseat" above. It just doesn't do much for me, while almost everything else on the album does

 

I have yet to hear anything decent on this album. I find arcade fire very overrated

 

to each their own of course ... I have problems with some of the more recent stuff myself

 

Perhaps my favorite band of the 21st century, with this album certainly being their finest.
Tough call; I went with Tunnels, Power Out, and Wake Up.

 

I voted for Tunnels, Laika and In the Backseat. I wish I could throw votes to Haiti and Crown of Love as well, seeing that they are trailing and both are exceptional.

I adore the entire record. A hugely important album for me personally and for my generation of rock fans. This is one of the few times in my life that I've been right in on a band from their first record and didn't discover them later. I'm a huge fan to this day.

 

I went for Power out,Wake Up and Rebellion,its still an amazing and emotional experience listening to the whole record even tho
Funeral is my 2nd favourite AF album after Reflektor and I thought Everything Now aside from few duff songs (I'm looking at you Peter Pan) was actually pretty good,We Dont Deserve Love is a Top Ten AF song for me.
On a Side Note i saw them in Birmingham last year in the round and it was an amazing show,here's the first 25 mins of that gig

 

Ok was not acutely aware of this old thread

I say - Tunnels, Laika, Wake Up, Crown of Love but I like most of the tunes

 

ditto!