Quick PopWatch contest: On this, the day after the release of the Arcade Fire’s very good second album, Neon Bible, I challenge each and every one of you to go out onto the Internets and find me the biggest piece of Arcade Fire backlash available, then bring it back here and post it in the comments. Later today, we will declare a winner! Fly, my pretties!
UPDATE: We have a winner!
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“[Neon Bible] veers between quite good and bloody rubbish with only a couple of flashes of brilliance here or there.” (playlouder.com)
Probably the worst review of the album out there.
http://www.playlouder.com/review/+neon-bible/
Probably the worst review of the album out there.
http://www.playlouder.com/review/+neon-bible/
huh. most of the negatives i’ve found relate to the needlessness of the special packaging gimmicks. there’s also a lot of “backlash is expected so i’m not going to give into the backlashing” backlashing. meta-backlashing!
I’m too lazy to do thy bidding, but I did read Rolling Stone’s mediocre review of the album. It says, “…on Neon Bible, the reverb is so big and black that the beat becomes boom and the orchestral garnish…The result is a huge sound that only sparkles on the edges, leaving Butler alone in the middle, railing against rising tides.” The articles’ writer, David Fricke, makes all of this sound like a bad thing! He gives this most innovative album of 2007 3 1/2 stars!
I’ve had the album for weeks now and I think it’s going to force my IPOD into a short circuit frenzy of fun. All those who deny this album will not be allowed into my new Eden, which sucks, because we serve great snacks there.
Here’s a pretty funny/idiotic one by a blogger in NY:
- They can’t sing.
- They can barely play their instruments.
- They can’t tune their instruments.
- They try to compensate for their musical ineptitude by dancing around like retards on stage.
http://couchslave.blogspot.com/2007/02/arcade-fire-sucks-they-cant-sing.html
ok. i give up. who are they are what’s the big deal?
I thought: ‘Simple, I’ll just go to Pitchfork. They’ll surely have something nasty to say.’ However, I read the review and am still not sure how they felt about it.
Sample line:
“While the group’s us-against-the-world stance occasionally comes off as slightly self-righteous or reactionary, their scathingly critical perspective gives weight and direction to their nervy earnestness.”
Whaa?
I’ve read this criticism a few different places, but I’ve taken this quote from the comments over at stereogum:
“I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: you know you’re in trouble when the best song on your new album is the one you wrote five years ago.”
But while it’s not exactly a full “backlash” my favourite little debate about the album comes from the music critics blog over at Macleans (the Canadian version of Time or Newsweek). It seems that discussing Neon Bible has taken up all of their time lately, and the back and forth is fun to read. Check it out (it’s most of the posts on the first three pages):
http://forums.macleans.ca/advansis/?mod=for&act=dis&eid=33&so=&ps=&sb=
Arcade Fire’s okay… but good lord, I’m sick of the media hyping a new band to death and then turning around and saying that its follow-up album didn’t live up the hype. Well, D’UH. It’s gotten to the point that, every time a great new band comes out, I start counting the days until the backlash hits. I.E., I’m banking on the Lily Allen “OVERRATED!!!” backlash, even though she’s rather cute and talented.
I vote for this one mainly because of the title “The Fire Has Quelled.” (What?)
It is a bad sign for the state of the band that the two best songs on the album, “Intervention,” and “No Cars Go,” were written prior to Funeral. Many of the other songs feature gimmicky melodies and parts that often accompany songwriters who are struggling. Is the magic gone? No, but if you just listened to the insipid new single, “Black Mirror,” you may think so.
http://media.www.thecowl.com/media/storage/paper493/news/2007/02/22/ArtsEntertainment/The-Fire.Has.Quelled-2737682.shtml
Pitchfork didn’t kiss their ass and give them a 10, they only rated the album 8.4. Isn’t that more of a shock than any lone blogger whining about the album?
http://idolator.com/tunes/arcade-fire/wake-up-today-is-the-greatest-day-of-your-indierock-existence-241838.php
I don’t know if it’s the meanest, but it’s certainly the funniest:
“That’s right. After months of playing coy with all of those leaks and streams and SendSpace files, you will now be faced with a mass-distributed, legally obtainable copy of Neon Bible. Which can only mean one thing: You will have to form your own opinion about it. Will you go the non-questioning devotee route, testifying to the album’s greatness, all the while secretly wishing the band had maybe cut down on the Springsteen shtick just a little? Or will you be a naysaying contrarian, dismissing the album and its fans, even as you listen to the newly recorded version of “No Cars Go” at the gym?
Or will you do something crazy, like giving the album a few listens before rendering an instant verdict, and maybe judging it on its own merits? (Have fun with that, killjoy.)”
Here’s some choice lines from cokemachineglow’s review:
With Neon Bible, “the result is a considerably more gothic affair than Funeral, a set that sometimes screams ‘overcompensation!’”
Probably my favorite: “Oh, about that pipe organ…not since Rush rocked the Yamaha DX-7 on Power Windows (1985) has a set of ivories so threatened to overshadow everything else on its parent album. There’s portions of Neon Bible that really do seem to serve no discernible purpose other than as a showcase for the fact that yes, they really did have a gigantic church organ at their disposal when it was recorded.”
To sum it up: “Neon Bible isn’t quite the revelation that Funeral was; its newfound embrace of worldly concerns often borders on the embarrassing, and the reverberation threatens to swallow the songs whole.”
http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2007/03/arcade_fire_bac.html#comments
Well, that wasn’t too smart. I provided the wrong link, sorry.
http://www.cokemachineglow.com/reviews/arcadefire_neonbible2007.html
Whitney, you are pure evil..!
(BTW, I’m going out to buy this after work, today! Whoo-hoo!)
JessB said: ” I’m sick of the media hyping a new band to death and then turning around and saying that its follow-up album didn’t live up the hype.”
Of course. That nails it. This album is far better then most complete albums out there now. As a whole I dare it to go head to head with countless other albums that have a few good songs and a bunch of crap.
But honestly don’t hype the second coming and then complain when it doesn’t come.
OK, I’ll play. This is abridged from The Village Voice:
“Neon Bible isn’t nearly as grandiose, as naive as its predecessor. The band’s still outfitting their ramshackle sound with hurdy gurdies, accordions, horns, strings, and that humongous organ, but the songs here are generally more subdued, more nuanced. Unfortunately, there’s also more lyrical cow patties like “MTV, what have you done to me/Save my soul, set me free.” Dude, you’ve been living in a church in the middle of nowhere. Kurt Loder is not giving you the heebie-jeebies. So there are growing pains here, there’s doubt and sadness and confusion. And there’s fear.”
Not super-negative, but not exactly complimentary…
Enough with calling “this act is overrated” or “that act is overrated” when we really need new blood in music that isn’t the same old manufactured crap shoved down our throats. Why not call someone overrated that actually IS overrated, like Britney or Jessica Simpson.
http://www.ateaseweb.com/mb/index.php?showtopic=234997766
does this count as backlash?
i can’t stand this band. how ’bout that? never liked ‘em in the first place…
Never heard of them until I noticed they were on SNL and I wondered how they got on the show. After hearing them I really wondered how they got on the show. Not very memorable. No reason to purchase. Goodbye…
arcade fire deserve to be overrated!
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