NUMBER ONE HUNDRED & SIX.
September16
I have to say that since picking up a pre-release copy of Arcade Fire’s third studio LP The Suburbs, I have been blown away by what is not only an undeniably fantastic album, but also a record created by a band who are whole-heartedly embracing the opportunities our current digital age is affording the music industry.
Arcade officially dropped The Suburbs on August 2/3, depending on where in the world you live, although they led with a soft release of a two-track teaser EP much earlier in the year. The 12-track LP (a much longer album when compared to both their debut and sophomore releases), whilst retaining the band’s signature indie/baroque pop sound, isn’t afraid to tread into new, more complex territories. Individual tracks may work as singles, but there is an over-arcing narrative to this album which makes it all the more compelling. As front-man Win Butler puts it, this is Arcade’s “letter from the suburbs”.
With digital copies of the album downloaded from the band’s official website came a new first; the m4a’s included Synchronized Artwork developed by AATOAA. Win wanted to recreate the feelings we the listeners used to get when we purchased music on CD or cassette; when flipping through the lyrics, looking at a band picture or a cool drawing related to a song while listening to it. The artwork, which automatically opens during various moments in each song, incorporates elements of the physically printed LP’s packaging, along with a number of hyperlinks which enable the band to update and change the artwork from time to time! As a digital creative, I am so excited about this whole new area of music industry design.
On August 5, the band streamed their ‘album release’ on YouTube - a full concert at Madison Square Garden, webcast live to eager fans across the globe. I sat glued to my computer as the new songs filled my studio space with the kind of energy that can only inhabit a live performance. I felt a new sense of connection to this troop of seven strangers based on the other side of the planet.
The latest development of The Suburbs to date is the release of The Wilderness Downtown, an interactive music video set to the album’s thirteenth track We Used to Wait. Directed by Chris Milk, the website allows you to input the address where you grew up and the video then integrates your childhood suburb into it’s story.
For me personally, the album has been in constant rotation on my iPhone and computer for the last seven weeks and with each sonic encounter I feel like I am catching a little more of the rich tapestry this band are weaving. The lines of songs like Rococo, City With No Children or Suburban War wash over me, evoking memories of my own childhood set in a different suburb to Win and William Butler, while at the same time unsettling me with the quiet desperation of the lyrics I find echoing within me. Maybe we’ve never left the suburbs after all.
