The Suburbs
by Arcade Fire
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This album has been added to 3 private lists and 9 public lists:
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1001Albums
Neil HopkinsI was all prepared to shrug my shoulders at this album - pretty standard, middle of the road indie stuff from Canadian rockers Arcade fire, with a loose sort of concept theme of life in the suburbs, but one track made me sit up and listen. Month of May is a certified banger - a solid Krautrock beat and even a nod to the Ramones with a ‘1, 2, 3, 4’ lead in, and some great lines about ‘kids all standing with their arms folded tight’.
I started listening a bit more closely to the lyrics, and there’s some nice stuff in here about run down shopping malls and soulless housing estates patrolled by police chasing kids on bikes, where you can’t even recognise the house you grew up in without looking at the numbers on the door. The last but one track is Sprawl II, which is a great 80s style vaporwave pastiche leading into the final section about the Suburbs. Malltastic!
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My Vinyl
Ben EdwardsIconic
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High School Never Dies
Dan SteinThe alienating feeling of the suburbs gets under your skin. It is not for the faint of heart, and I don't think its something that if you grew up in a city you could possibly understand. Arcade Fire elevated (somewhat pretentiously) this phenomenon to new heights on this album. Sprawl II, the album's best song, articulates this the best. You know your kind is in the city, but you cant escape the feeling that they don't want you there.
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