Reflektor

Arcade Fire recently released their fourth album, and I eagerly anticipated it, as did much of the music world, for they are certainly the foremost art-rock band now working. Their last album, The Suburbs, won the Grammy for Best Album. Not Alternative Album, mind you, but Best Album, period. Would success spoil Arcade Fire?

Well, it's hard to say. This album, a double disc set, is unlike anything they have done before. And that, in my ears, is a detriment. Not because I want them simply to repeat themselves, but because they have chosen a style of music that is just not my cup of tea.

Reflektor, as the album is titled, was produced by James Murphy, formerly of LCD Soundsystem. That band, now defunct, was acclaimed by many, but I couldn't get into them because, frankly, I don't like dance music, or techno, or disco, or whatever you want to call it. Murphy's music has always been heavily rhythmic, to the point of making the melody almost non-existent. Now he's done that to Arcade Fire.

I listened to Reflektor a few times and each time I liked it less, finally having to hit eject on disc 2 after the incessant and heavy bass was making my head feel like it was split by a spike. The drumming sounds like a drum machine, not an actual person drumming. I just couldn't stomach the record.

This is a shame, because lyrically the album is quite good. It references Haiti, the film Black Orpheus, and Kierkegaard (talk about college rock). But this is all buried under the kind of music that keeps me out of clubs (among many other things).

The whole thing is also very lengthy, with some tracks as long as eleven minutes. A few stand out--"Joan of Arc" actually has an old-fashioned rock and roll hook. But Reflektor is better when I just read the lyric sheet. For example, in the song "Porno":

"Take the makeup off your eyes.
I've got to see you, hear your sacred sighs.
Before the break up, comes the silence."

I don't disagree with anyone who likes this album, it's just not for me. There are entire worlds of music that I don't like, among them hip-hop, most country, and techno. At least I still have Neon Bible, their second and, to my mind, still their best album.