Arcade Fire - Everything Now (2017 album)

My wife recently purchased this and Beck's newest. I find both albums almost insufferable. This sounds like upper-class art school ironic nothingness. A lot of noise, signifying nothing. Ironic poppiness has to be handled deftly or, this late in the game, it sounds old and empty. Very empty. When bands play the "Shut up and dance" card too often, or at the wrong time, it just aint as fresh as it used to be. Watch a performance of Beck during that ultra-hip Midnight Vultures era where he's pretending to be an R&B alpha! CORNY. This stuff isn't going to age well. Frank Ocean's BLOND is about 100 times fresher, engaging, honest and creative, to my ears.

 

Who says either album is intended ironically? Arcade Fire's marketing campaign may have been ironic but I don't think the music is meant to be. And Beck's album seems to be an entirely sincere effort to make something upbeat and positive, no quotation marks around it.

 

Oh, then they're worse than I thought! Thks

 

Maybe it's just me, but I'd rather see someone playing something as simple as the tambourine with enthusiasm than just standing there looking bored and tapping along.

 

Arcade Fire have always been theatrical as **** on stage. I guess it's not for everyone, but as someone who sees hundreds of shows a year, I appreciate when performers put on a SHOW!

 

Agreed. Musicians have fun on stage is infectious and almost always gets a live crowd more into a show. Every time I have ever seen the Flaming Lips, it is like a party on stage, and the crowd always eats up every bit of it.

 

As well as that "red-haired guy" (Richard Reed Parry) being their main guitar-wrangler (who has defined the band's signature sound as much as Win or Régine has), a tasteful double bass player and a recognized composer (seriously!) with a number of performed works under his belt. He can tap a mean tambourine for sure but he is imo inarguably the most talented musician in the band by far.

Will makes me laugh though I certainly understand why he annoys some. I saw him a couple of years ago in a small club touring behind his solo album and he rose in my esteem a bit from that. Came in, set up his gear along with his bandmates on the usual postage stamp-sized stage and his guitar kept falling off the strap - he was a champ and plowed through the set, switching between guitar and keyboards with loads of infectious energy. Hearing him on his own gave me more appreciation for what he brings to the table in AF (even if he can often act as goofy as hell). Ditto seeing Sarah Neufeld and Jeremy Gara opening for St.Vincent....

It's not Arcade Fire without any one of them...though will admit Will might be the most expendable!

 

For a few years I've been wondering if Win Butler has pulled a Coldplay(now 50/17/17/17) and demanded an unequal revenue split in his favor.

 

I would be shocked if he hasn't. And I mean that in a positive way.

 

So maybe Win/Rene get 50% and the other 4 core member including Will Butler get 12.5% each?

Sarah was core member 2006-2013 but is now a non-core member.

 

That's the quickest way to tear a band apart. I get that not every band can be like Rush (who split everything evenly three ways no matter what), especially if a band is one where one or two people do most or all of the songwriting, but when you start worrying too much about grabbing a bigger slice of the cash pie, that rarely ends well.

 

Finally got my free cd's that came with the September concert tickets. Nice idea, but not very timely.

 

I DVR'd SNL last night to see the Arcade Fire performances.

Oof.

I love Creature Comfort, but that was a horrendous performance. They've been playing that at every show since last summer, yet it sounded like a band who was early in rehearsals for a tour.

Put Your Money on Me sounded okay.

 

Both performances were underwhelming.

 

Yet one must filter expectations through the fact that every act on SNL sounds awful. Not their best SNL performance (see: Sprawl II or Reflektor), but seemed fine to me.

 

I picked up this cd a few weeks ago....LOVE IT! Can't remember a cd I played over and over again in a long time

 

Well, they've won the Album of The Year award at the Junos tonight, despite the backlash.

 

In a category that, in 2018, included both Michael Buble and Shania Twain. Of course they won.

 

Looking forward to seeing them again this eve always brilliant live....
This is probably their weakest album and was a naff marketing campaign, but it's still a fun listen and has 2 or 3 songs that most bands would die for.

 

Not so sure it's weaker than The Suburbs

 

Because those bands' fans would kill them ?

D.D.

 

Suburbs come second only to the debut for me.

Looking forward to Glasgow this coming Monday. Was lucky enough to see them last year at the TINY S****horpe Bath Hall and it was an utterly brilliant show...

 

Only won 'em the Grammy, but, sure, it's weak.

 

The 2nd side of Reflektor is excellent too. Suburbs is good, but find it a bit of a slog....

 

Going through the recent comments here and the SNL performance ... I am (getting more now to "was") a relatively big Arcade Fire fan. I just do not enjoy this latest album, though admittedly I have only played it about 3 times. At some point I'll listen again, but I also did not enjoy the SNL performance in March either. There has been a very conscious move to club/dance oriented songwriting in my view. That started on Reflektor, though I liked that release pretty well and agree with Greg Smith above that side 2 is very good. I gravitate to Funeral and The Suburbs mostly for my AF fixes, but I really enjoyed the Reflektor live show a few years back, went with my late-teens son and was a great experience for both of us. Not sure if I would spend the $ if they came through town again right now