Montreal's
Arcade Fire successfully avoided the sophomore slump with 2007's apocalyptic
Neon Bible. Heavier and more uncertain than their nearly perfect, darkly optimistic 2004 debut, the album aimed for the nosebleed section and left a red mess. Having already fled the cold comforts of suburbia on
Funeral and suffered beneath the weight of the world on
Neon Bible, it seems fitting that a band once so consumed with spiritual and social middle-class fury should find peace "under the overpass in the parking lot." If nostalgia is just pain recalled, repaired, and resold, then
The Suburbs is its sales manual. Inspired by brothers
Win and
William Butler's suburban Houston, Texas upbringing, the 16-track record plays out like a long lost summer weekend, with the jaunty but melancholy
Kinks/
Bowie-esque title cut serving as its bookends. Meticulously paced and conservatively grand, fans looking for the instant gratification of past anthems like "Wake Up" and "Intervention" will find themselves reluctantly defending
The Suburbs upon first listen, but anyone who remembers excitedly jumping into a friend's car on a sleepy Friday night armed with heartache, hope, and no agenda knows that patience is key. Multiple spins reveal a work that's as triumphant and soul-slamming as it is sentimental and mature. At its most spirited, like on "Empty Room," "Rococo," "City with No Children," "Half Light II (No Celebration)," "We Used to Wait," and the glorious
Regine Chassagne-led "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)," the latter of which threatens to break into
Blondie's "Heart of Glass" at any moment,
Arcade Fire make the suburbs feel positively electric. Quieter moments reveal a changing of the guard, as
Win trades in the
Springsteen-isms of
Neon Bible for
Neil Young on "Wasted Hours," and the ornate rage of
Funeral for the simplicity of a line like "Let's go for a drive and see the town tonight/There's nothing to do, but I don't mind when I'm with you," from album highlight "Suburban War."
The Suburbs feels like
Richard Linklater's
Dazed & Confused for the Y generation. It's serious without being preachy, cynical without dissolving into apathy, and whimsical enough to keep both sentiments in line, and of all of their records, it may be the one that ages the best. ~ James Christopher Monger
![Dear Catastrophe Waitress [20th Anniversary]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0744861106524_p0_v1_s90x140.jpg "Dear Catastrophe Waitress [20th Anniversary]")
