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Rating: "Elizabethtown", 2005, directed by Cameron Crowe: the male protagonist, Drew (Orlando Bloom), wanders through the halls of a luxury hotel talking on the phone with a flight attendant, Claire (Kirsten Dunst), whom he met the day before during a flight to Kentucky. From there, he would have traveled to Elizabethtown for his father Mitch’s funeral, reuniting with his paternal side of the family after many years. He goes alone: his mother is not exactly on good terms with his father's family due to old issues that are not worth delving into here. As if that weren't enough, Drew has just lost his job and girlfriend as well, and he has "wisely" thought, and attempted, to end it all with a big kitchen knife that he intended to use to pierce himself, putting an end to his woes. But then the phone rings: on the other end is his sister, informing him of their father's passing. He decides to attend the funeral in Mitch's homeland and then return home to "finish the job." Nothing would have stopped him.
He enters a suite whose door was left open, taking two bottles of beer. On that door (and those of the neighboring rooms) is the writing "Cindy & Chuck forever" inside a heart made of cardboard. Cindy and Chuck are two soon-to-be-married people, meanwhile having fun separately, in other rooms, with their friends, for a rambunctious bachelor/bachelorette party. It’s here that Drew encounters a slightly tipsy man in a bathrobe: it is indeed Chuck who initially seems upset about the theft, but upon learning why Drew is in the hotel, bursts into tears, in one of the film’s most hilarious scenes, where in the end it is the orphan who consoles the groom-to-be.
In his "desperation," Chuck mumbles something like "...And there they are, life and death and death and life, both right there side by side, there's just a thread separating them..."
Indeed, death, the great mystery of human history. A mystery that brings tears, pain, which can disperse as well as, on the contrary, cement entire families. Pain that can certainly result in resignation, cynicism, nihilism, but also a desire to live, an affirmation of life.
After all, Kierkegaard said: once you've hit rock bottom, you can only rise. And if one thinks about it, regarding mourning, the Arcade Fire from Montreal, Canada, during the making of their first album, must have hit rock bottom. It’s not common to have the "record" of losing loved ones in as short a time span as between the winter of 2003 and the early months of 2004: seven family members of various band members (also seven, but the number increases on tour) indeed passed away during that period. Now, the album that can emerge from such a tragedy could easily be a collection of tear-jerking ballads, and I would venture to say! But this is not the case.
The album in question, whose title is (as you might expect) "Funeral," addresses, yes, themes of death in the lyrics: snow covering entire cities, burying and immobilizing parents' toes (Neighborhood #1 and Neighborhood #3), odes to sisters who are no more (Backseat), older brothers going off to war (Neighborhood #2) (Yes, there's also Neighborhood #4).
However, all of this is in a musical context of baroque folk-pop-rock with majestic, operatic, and... almost festive arrangements! Songs that take you by the hand in the critical moment of crying, of despair, and guide you into the phase where you think "Okay, let's roll up our sleeves and try to make sense of this life" or "I don't want to waste a single moment of the life I have ahead". In short, that phase where, in contrast to what a dear one has just lost (perhaps gaining something immensely better, eh), you realize how beautiful what you still have ahead is. "Une année sans lumière," in this regard, is illustrative: verse/chorus/verse/chorus in an atmosphere I wouldn’t say gloomy, but certainly not exhilarating (though beautiful), and then an explosion of electric guitar riffs and "Ehh!" that chase each other in a crescendo I dare call euphoric, in a sort of reversal, an aprosdoketon (!!!). What also happens, in reality, in Crown of Love and in the masterpiece, generational anthem, Wake Up. Tracks that (like the aforementioned "Year without Light") take a sudden turn towards their end: in the first, the pathos of a man asking forgiveness, probably from his beloved, bursts into a dance-style tail-end 1980s, in the second the majestic rock epic of the first 4 minutes gives way to a triumph of chimes and tinkles that adorn what could very well be one of the rhymes sung in a classic Disney animated film, only to return emphatically, just in time for the closing.
The best lines? Probably those in which Win Butler (vocals and guitar), brother of Will (guitar but also bass, backing vocals, keyboards, xylophone, drum, and tambourine - no, really!) and husband of Regine Chassagne (vocals, backing vocals, accordion, piano, drums and again xylophone, drum, and tambourine - really this time as well), with his distinctive theatrical voice, sings (and perhaps prays) in Neighborhood #1:
"Purify the colours, purify my mind
purify the colours, purify my mind
and spread the ashes of the colours over this heart of mine!"
("purify the colors, purify my mind, purify the colors, purify my mind and spread the ashes of the colors over this heart of mine")
We are essentially faced with a record that will be remembered over the years, perhaps in decades and in secula seculorum, and rightly so. A record that literally made even David Bowie fall in love with this family band. A record purchased (legend has it, but it’s a true story) in batches of dozens of copies by the White Duke himself to give away to his friends. A record that brings euphoria, that affirms life. And in these times...!
[The following lines are reserved for those who have already seen the film "Elizabethtown" or who simply do not even consider the idea of watching it, therefore those to whom I would not spoil the party by revealing the ending.]
For the record: remember Drew? Well, his mother, thanks to a tap dancing performance during Mitch's farewell ceremony, is welcomed into the family (speaking of the unexpected "reconciling powers" of a bereavement), and he ends up falling in love with Claire (whaddyaknow, eh, who would have ever expected it?), evidently abandoning his macabre project, as the last words (his and the film's) are: "A tiny sprout of life is capable of growing even in concrete; the salmon of the Pacific Northwest are even willing to die in their quest, traveling hundreds of miles upstream with one goal: procreation, of course, but also... life."
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Neighborhood #2 (Laïka) (03:32)
Alexander, our older brother,
set out for a great adventure.
He tore our images out of his pictures,
he scratched our names out of all his letters.
Our mother shoulda just named you Laika!
Come on Alex, you can do it.
Come on Alex, there's nothin' to it.
If you want somethin' don't ask for nothin,
if you want nothin' don't ask for somethin'!
Our mother shoulda just named you Laika!
It's for your own good,
it's for the neighborhood!
For the neighborhood
Our older brother bit by a Vampire!
For a year we caught his tears in a cup.
And now we're gonna make him drink it.
Come on Alex don't die or dry up!
Our mother shoulda just named you Laika!
It's for your own good,
it's for the neighborhood!
When daddy comes home you always start a fight,
so the neighbors can dance in the police disco lights.
The police disco lights.
Now the neighbors can dance! (x4)
03 Une année sans lumière (03:41)
Hey! The streetlights all burnt out.
Une année sans lumières.
Je monte un cheval,
Qui porte des oeillères.
Hey, my eyes are shooting sparks,
La nuit, mes yeux t'éclairent.
Ne dis pas à ton père
Qu'il porte des oeillières.
Hey, your old man should know,
If you see a shadow,
There's something there.
So hey! my eyes are shooting sparks,
La nuit mes yeux t'éclairent,
Ne dis pas à ton père
Qu'il porte des oeillères.
Hey, your old man should know,
If you see a shadow,
There's something there
07 Wake Up (05:35)
Somethin' filled up
My heart with nothin',
Someone told me not to cry.
But now that I'm older,
My heart's colder,
And I can see that it's a lie...
Children wake up,
Hold your mistake up,
Before they turn the summer into dust.
If the children don't grow up,
Our bodies get bigger but our hearts get torn up.
We're just a million little gods causin' rain storms, turnin' every good thing to
rust.
I guess we'll just have to adjust!...
With my lightnin' bolts a glowin'
I can see where I am goin' to be
When the reaper he reaches and touches my hand.
With my lightnin' bolts a glowin'
I can see where I am goin’
With my lighnin' bolts a glowin'
I can see where I am go-goin’
You better look out below!
08 Haïti (04:07)
Haïti, mon pays
Wounded mother I'll never see
Ma famille set me free
Throw my ashes into the sea
Mes cousins jamais nés
Hauntent les nuits des Duvaliers
Rien n'arrête nos esprits
Guns can't kill what soldiers can't see
In the forest we are hiding
Unmarked graves where flowers grow
Hear the soldiers angry yelling
In the river we will go
Tous les morts-nés forment une armée
Soon we will reclaim the earth
All the tears and all the bodies
Bring about our second birth
Haïti, never free
N'aie pas peur de sonner l'alarme
Tes enfants sont partis
In those days their blood was still warm.
09 Rebellion (Lies) (05:11)
Sleeping is giving in,
No matter what the time is.
Sleeping is giving in,
So lift those heavy eyelids.
People say that you'll die
Faster than without water.
But we know it's just a lie,
Scare your son, scare your daughter.
People say that your dreams
Are the only things that save ya.
Come on baby in our dreams,
We can live our misbehavior.
Every time you close your eyes
Lies, lies!
Every time you close your eyes
Lies, lies!
Every time you close your eyes
Lies, lies!
Every time you close your eyes
Lies, lies!
Every time you close your eyes
Every time you close your eyes
Every time you close your eyes
Every time you close your eyes
People try and hide the night
Underneath the covers.
People try and hide the light
Underneath the covers.
Come on hide your lovers
Underneath the covers,
Come on hide your lovers
Underneath the covers.
Hidin' from your brothers
Underneath the covers,
Come on hide your lovers
Underneath the covers.
People say let's just die
Faster than without water,
But we know it's just a lie,
Scare your son, scare your daughter,
Scare your son, scare your daughter.
Scare your son, scare your daughter.
Now here's the sun, it's alright!
(Lies, lies!)
Now here's the moon, it's alright!
(Lies, lies!)
Now here's the sun, it's alright!
(Lies, lies!)
Now here's the moon it's alright
(Lies, lies!)
Every time you close your eyes
Lies, lies!
Every time you close your eyes
Lies, lies!
Every time you close your eyes
Lies, lies!
Every time you close your eyes
Lies, lies!
Every time you close your eyes
Every time you close your eyes
(Lies, lies!)
10 In the Backseat (06:20)
I like the peace
In the backseat
I don't have to drive
I don't have to speak
I can watch the countryside
And I can fall asleep
My family tree's
Losing all it's leaves
Crashing towards the driver's seat
The lightning bolt had enough heat
To melt the street beneath your feet
Alice died
In the night
I've been learning to drive
My whole life
I've been learning
I like the peace
In the backseat
I don't have to drive
I don't have to speak
I only can watch the countryside
Alice died
In the night
I've been learning to drive
My whole life
I've been learning how
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Other reviews
By damaskinos
Funeral is a paradox. It should express absence, loss, discouragement. Instead, it sounds so euphoric and life-affirming.
Funeral manages to divinely blend orchestral movements with offbeat pulses; melancholic and experimental beginnings that suddenly burst into post-punk tailspins.
By rob1
This debut by Arcade Fire is a great little album, filled as it is with intensity, emotions, and at least a handful of memorable songs.
The ensemble ultimately remains not very dispersive and well-calibrated.
By Saturnina.Ruby
"It’s exciting how music can be strange and contradictory. The environment is less tense, life is the same, but I feel some strings in my body occasionally emitting signs of life."
"Recommended for: all those looking for a home within some good medicine that doesn’t harm and have their inner strings completely out of tune."
By Bert
The music is sad but played in a cheerful way so that everything seems spontaneous.
Funeral is an album worthy of careful analysis, being the first album by the Canadian Indie Rock group Arcade Fire.
