Arcade Fire
The Reflektor

Too often in recent years, many albums have been burdened with the expectation that they must necessarily revolutionize music. Too often, because of this prejudice, the only true objective an album should achieve is lost from sight: to move.

This album doesn't revolutionize anything, yet it manages to move you—a difficult feat these days.

Arcade Fire is a group of Canadians who make music. It's hard to attribute a specific genre to them (indie rock is too broad a term), and it's even harder to assign a genre to this album, a double album to be precise. A non-random division.

The first part begins with Reflektor. Right away, you sense the change in the band's sound: evident disco influences that will follow throughout the album, and especially evident is the touch of James Murphy, the brilliant producer who manages the tough task of keeping an album clean with The Reflektor. It continues with We Exist, another nod to disco, and Flashbulb Eyes, the shortest song on the album: catchy melody and clear Haitian influences (a country dear to AF). In one of the many rhythm changes of the album, we find Here Comes The Night Time, a track in continuous mutation but consistently maintaining a warm and fresh atmosphere. The last 3 songs of the first part are the most rock of the album: Normal Person is simply spine-tingling, pure rock. You Already Know seems to have come out of McCartney's latest album and holds up perfectly in comparison. It all ends with Joan of Arc which could be described as a happy punk interlude, adorned with a partly French text, an unusual but winning combination.

The second part of the album is profoundly different. In the remaining 6 tracks, you delve deeper, and the album shows its darker and more introspective side. The electronics present in the other tracks are more pronounced here, or Arcade Fire manages to use it to take the album to another, more melancholic dimension.

It all starts with a reprise of Here Comes The Night Time II, which has nothing to do with the eponymous track. No percussion, an almost whispered text, and a melody that immediately hints at the direction of the rest of the album. However, Awful Sound differs from the previous song, the last gasp of air before diving in; especially towards the end, there's a hint of the Beatles. Darkness. It's Never Over is another mix of genres: funky guitars accompanied by pounding percussion and a very light synthesizer in the background, one of the album's many peaks. Porno is undoubtedly the album's most electronic track; the production is decidedly simpler compared to other songs but still impactful. The penultimate song is Afterlife, which breaks away from the style of the previous 2 tracks and brings it closer to that of the first part: the bongos return, and the electronics disappear. The album ends with Supersymmetry, where it falls back into darkness, which gradually lights up with a crescendo of strings and synthesizer arpeggios.

The Reflektor is undoubtedly one of Arcade Fire's best albums, a perfect mix of genres, a rollercoaster of emotions, and sudden changes in atmosphere. A deep album, yet at the same time catchy. An album that achieves its goal: transporting you not to one but to various dimensions, an album that knows how to MOVE you.