Arcade Fire

[Avalon_Fields]

7 hours ago, MattDavies__ said:

http://www.stereoyum.com/072217/arcade-fire-premature-evaluation-everything-now/review/#

Mojo magazine gives a lukewarm 3 stars review. Still intending to see them again in April.

BTW QoTSA gains an excellent review...

 

[kingcrawler]

Seems like the albums leaked. Haven't had the chance to listen yet but I'll sort that today.

[Tr234]

 

4 minutes ago, kingcrawler said:

Seems like the albums leaked. Haven't had the chance to listen yet but I'll sort that today.

Link?

[kingcrawler]

11 minutes ago, Tr234 said:

 

Link?

Should just be up on the usual places like getleaks.net

[Hugh Jass]

Happy to wait a week for my vinyl copy.

[nikkic]

44 minutes ago, Hugh Jass said:

Happy to wait a week for my vinyl copy.

Same.

[Comfy Bean]

Everything Now has really grown on me. Could be quite the anthem live.

Had decided against Glasgow. Monday night, Hydro, cost but getting twitchy now.

[scatteredscreens]

Don't enjoy the album, but with four other albums I really enjoyed it's not gonna put me off seeing them live again.

[fowls]

It's very minimalist - for a 9 person band, there's not an awful lot going on! Everything Now, Creature Comfort and We Don't Deserve Love are head and shoulders above the rest of the album.  We Don't Deserve Love is magical, would've loved more ballads or just more songs with fully developed lyrics.

 

Can see it growing, especially Chemistry and Put Your Money on Me. But there's no way it'll going to hit the heights of the other albums. 

[bocumaroy]

Couldn't resist, but I think the quality of the leak (if it's the same one) isn't good enough to fully appreciate the finer details, or lack thereof. Not gonna listen again until it's the proper audio, but my premature evaluation is that the two penultimate tracks bring the album together to a really satisfying conclusion, alongside a strong set of singles. Doubt it's going to impress anyone who doesn't like those singles, because there's a definite drop off in quality in the middle of the album.

The banality of some of the lyrics come across better in the context, as the overall tone by the end feels quite directly bleak and defeated rather than throwaway fun. 

Kind of looking forward to the release more now, so I can experience Put Your Money On Me and We Don't Deserve Love properly.

Edited July 22, 2017 by bocumaroy

[dentalplan]

Finna be a long ass week if they don't up it themselves like they did w/ Reflektor soundtracking Black Orpheus.

[yaniv297]

Put Your Money on Me and We Don't Deserve Love are great.

Rest of the album are singles we've already heard + quite medicore songs in the middle + repetition of same song.

[Amy Lawn]

Just started listening to the leak. Only just starting out on the title track, but yeah the sound quality is a bit mushy. That being said, it wouldn't be the first time I've experienced poor recording or sound reproduction on an AF release. My CD copy of The Suburbs sound like complete shit in places, and I'm not very well informed on these things but I'm pretty sure it's as a result of crappy mastering. My vinyl copy of Neon Bible is dogshit in places, but that'll be the pressing rather than the recording, because the CD sounds much better.

Why doesn't everybody love Signs Of Life when it's clearly the best single by far? And it's got their best music video to date.

[kingcrawler]

Listened through a couple of times now and I agree with the general consensus that it's a bit of a mixed bag. I love the title track and the intro and outro's that come with it, the bit where the strings come in on the last song is lovely. Really like the other three singles too. As others have said, Put Your Money On Me and We Don't Deserve Love seem good so far too, even if the latter is quite reminiscent of It's Never Over. The mid section is where the problems are. I think Peter Pan is decent but feel like it's more of a grower, Chemistry just isn't a good song and the punk Infinite Content doesn't really work for me. Can't remember too much about Good God Damn. 

Overall I think over time it'll sit more with Reflektor and Neon Bible in my rankings than the other two. It's maybe not as immediately great as I'd hoped for based on the singles but it's still a good album which I'm sure will grow on me more. I feel like people who really liked Reflektor will enjoy this more and the same the other way (sorry FloorFiller).

[Guy Incognito]

Chemistry is bloody awful

[Amy Lawn]

Chemistry made me laugh. I think the first half is pretty good, but the second half took a bit of dive and lost my interest (speaking of the album as a whole).

Edited July 22, 2017 by GETOFFAMYLAWN

[Guy Incognito]

1 minute ago, GETOFFAMYLAWN said:

Chemistry made me laugh. I think the first half is pretty good, but the second half took a bit of dive and lost my interest (speaking of the album as a whole).

the whole album just feels really half hearted? Didn't like the singles much but they're definitely the highlights of the album, Put Your Money On Me is okay too.

[Amy Lawn]

Anybody want to tell Orpheus he's no longer the most hated album so he can stop facepalming?

[dentalplan]

3 minutes ago, GETOFFAMYLAWN said:

Anybody want to tell Orpheus he's no longer the most hated album so he can stop facepalming?

That's actually what Eurydice is whispering.

"Don't worry Poppet, at least there won't be an initial level of goodwill for the next one and people will be baying for a dud".

[fowls]

I bloody love Chemistry!! It almost has a second line feel to it.   I also think Reflektor is their best album (seem to be the only one here?), but this one doesn't gel with me in the same way. The synths here feel a lot colder, and the disco groove isn't there. ...and I really like You Already Know, so I'm an accidental contrarian I guess.

 

I agree it's on Neon Bible level of a beautiful mess - like they're on the edge of something great, but didn't quite give it the time to properly mature.  Something about a majority of the songs feel underdeveloped to me, difficult to put a finger on but probably the lack of complex composition and repetition of lyrics.  Everything about Suburbs and Reflektor was so well honed, this in comparison sounds like they got some demoes and rushed to the studio.

The prevailing feeling right now is I'm heartbroken about the lack of lyrics/narrative in EN - it's one of my favourite things about AF. We Don't Deserve Love is exactly the sort of song I'd like to hear more of!

Edited July 22, 2017 by fowls

[Rylbld9]

Had my first listen through and I liked it quite a lot more than I was expecting after reading some of the comments here. All of the singles have fully grown on me and are probably the strongest parts of the albums as well as the intro and outro tracks. Not really any tracks I dislike, Chemistry is decent enough. As I've stated before, the lyrics are the weakest area of the album, on most of the singles and on the Infinite Content tracks. I'd have Everything Now roughly on par with Neon Bible.

Funeral > Suburbs > Neon Bible > Everything Now > Reflektor.

Edited July 23, 2017 by Rylbld9

[Jobseeker]

14 hours ago, fowls said:

I bloody love Chemistry!! It almost has a second line feel to it.   I also think Reflektor is their best album (seem to be the only one here?), but this one doesn't gel with me in the same way. The synths here feel a lot colder, and the disco groove isn't there. ...and I really like You Already Know, so I'm an accidental contrarian I guess.

 

I agree it's on Neon Bible level of a beautiful mess - like they're on the edge of something great, but didn't quite give it the time to properly mature.  Something about a majority of the songs feel underdeveloped to me, difficult to put a finger on but probably the lack of complex composition and repetition of lyrics.  Everything about Suburbs and Reflektor was so well honed, this in comparison sounds like they got some demoes and rushed to the studio.

The prevailing feeling right now is I'm heartbroken about the lack of lyrics/narrative in EN - it's one of my favourite things about AF. We Don't Deserve Love is exactly the sort of song I'd like to hear more of!

Nailed it.. 

 

[bocumaroy]

Wasn't gonna mention it before because the whole "it's supposed to be ironic" thing tends to be pretty unpopular, but I've just read Win going on about composing rock/pop as like making a jingle, which leads me further to thinking that Infinite Content is supposed to sound exactly like a one, especially with the joke tab they released for it. I actually quite like the second version though. 

[FloorFiller]

One listen in. S'alright. The opening three songs/singles are far and away the best thing on here - it all kind of becomes a little forgettable after that, almost entirely due to most of the songs having like two lines of lyrics. Nothing on here I dislike straight off the bat as much as Flashbulb Eyes, but nothing that I can imagine coming close to breaking in to my top 10 (or even 20) AF tracks. I'll probably give it a few more listens but doubt I'll come back to this much/at all after I've gotten to grips with it initially. 

[st dan]

Put Your Money On Me is bloody brilliant. The only song I feel like I want to keep repeating from the album so far. 

Edited July 23, 2017 by st dan