Arcade Fire
Neon Bible

THE REVIEW

The day has come. The day of truth. The day when it will be known for certain if "Funeral" (one of the most awarded albums of recent years and unanimously praised by critics) is and will remain a unique and isolated masterpiece of Arcade Fire. Yes, in my opinion, it's the true masterpiece of the last 10 years of music. I want to exaggerate, or rather, I can do it, given that what Arcade Fire made me listen to with their first album is currently what each of us would like to hear from a song, from an album.

Well yes, Arcade Fire first surprised me, then thrilled me, and finally made me fall in love. And I assure you it's not easy. Historic bands like Radiohead, The Cure, Massive Attack have always been immobile up there, on the podium, unreachable, unattainable, and albums like 'Ok Computer', 'Disintegration', 'Blue Lines', at the top of my playlist. They are those bands that we all have and adore, for which we would drive 1,000 km to go listen to them, waking up at dawn and spending even the unspendable. Yes, it is exactly them. Well, for me, Arcade Fire is up there with them. One album, just one album, was enough to make me fall in love with them, make me buy their t-shirt, and buy tickets to London to listen to them live next March 17th. But let's get back to the music, "Neon Bible", here it is, it's here, the album, as they say, of confirmation. And what a confirmation, let me say.

In those two years since the release of "Funeral," the phrase that kept buzzing in my head was always the same "They can't make it. It's difficult. How can they repeat themselves, it's too hard. Then they never make it." Yes, they never make it, the other bands. Every time a group is born with an album that smells new, we often have to withdraw the compliments and enthusiasm almost always turns into disappointment, especially with the arrival of the second album, the one of confirmation indeed. And then Funeral, how do they repeat themselves, they must be really, really like the greats, yes, the historic bands, those up there, to be able to repeat an album at least equal to the first one. Well, what I want to tell you, why I'm writing you this "sort" of review is that Arcade Fire SUCCEEDED!! "Neon Bible" is the confirmation that this Canadian band is not here by chance, passing through, for business, for the will of a producer, or simply to "make a living" (like hundreds of bands we listen to hopefully but which we then see inexorably disappearing or, worse, reappearing later with a trash album).

Arcade Fire is here to play, to do it well, to do it from the heart, like once, like 20 years ago when labels were few and were born to give the best bands the opportunity to emerge, to be heard and not only to make money always and in any case. Arcade Fire is here to leave a mark that won't be easily forgotten. And "Neon Bible" is the confirmation of that. We are not talking about a "paranoid" search for alternative, electronic sounds, or a cutting-edge rock never heard before, but simply of excellent music, from the heart, original because it is pure not because it is different. There are several tracks in the album worthy of mention (almost all I would say) so selection is not easy: "Black wave/Bad Vibrations", basically the union of two songs as different as they are alike in which the two splendid voices of Regine and Win seem to "clash" and compare, the first shrill and sharp, the second deep and dark, almost a cry. Another track, that already at the second listening did not leave my body unmoved, is "Ocean of Noise", a classic crescendo song with a final instrumental part overflowing with violins and guitars caressing and emerging over Win's voice. The Cure (of Disintegration to be clear) could not do better.

"No cars go", already present in the previous 2005 EP, re-sung and re-played with a much better audio quality than the first release. "Windowstill", a stuttering ballad, made of slow and fast rhythms, with continuous rhythm changes that explode literally in the second part of the song. To conclude "My Body is a Cage", a poignant and suffering ballad closing the album, with organs accompanying Win's husky voice and accompanied by a drumworthy of 'Pornography'.

This is it. I only ask you a favor at this point. If I am wrong, if what you hear from this album is different from what I described, tell me and wake me up from this sound dream.