I was watching the Arcade Fire live webcast of their Madison Square Garden show the other day. A few thoughts popped into my mind:

-The show looked pretty much exactly like the show I went to: meaning, same stage set up, same moments happening during songs (i.e. Win going up to the rafters, some guy running around and bashing a drum during Rebellion)... all that jazz.

-Apparently the webcast was directed by Terry Gilliam, which meant... well, nothing. That he likes the band and had a day off to hang out with them, I guess.

-The band still has this aura of self-seriousness that I don't really like. I mean, it's great and all that people's aiming for the stars and trying to be the best in the world and crap. But when you have the opinion that they've reached short of that "best in the world" moniker and yet find them still clinging desperately to that goal, your reaction is going to be "...OK, that's... great?" I think a lot of it is thanks to the hype as well. I read that BBC was comparing their newest album to OK Computer, which seems like such a stupid thing to say and an immediate turn off to anything regarding the band or the album. So pretty much no one is helping.

All that said... their newest album isn't bad.

It's not a classic by any means, and there's a point in which it all begins to sound the same (which I think comes down to the fact that it seems less complex and yet much longer than their other two albums), but you know... it's not bad. After Neon Bible, which was basically them trying to CHANGE THE WORLD WITH MUSIC, they needed their next album to be something less overwhelming in concept.

And so I've been able to just tune out any sort of overarching theme to the album (I'm pretty sure it has to do with the suburbs... and the kids), ignore all the lyrics (which is what I usually like to do and yet found it impossible to do on their last album) and just listen to what's there. And musically, they're not aiming to conquer the world like their last album, but instead going for intricate and atmospheric--sort of like Funeral, except without the killer songwriting. I've only given it a couple of spins, so I'm not really super familiar with all the songs, but here's a few that stand out:

City With No Children: I read somewhere that it sounds a bit like the Rolling Stones, which seems really weird but it's kind of true. But I don't know how to explain it... the song sounds sort of off. I'm explaining this as a good thing, you know.

Month Of May: I think everyone hates Month Of May, but I don't. Mainly because it's pretty much the only song on the album that's somewhat uptempo... which is a REALLY nice change of pace.

We Used To Wait: It has this killer beginning with a fantastic melody, and given the band's track record you'd expect it to develop into this epic crescendo like Wake Up or something. It doesn't... which saddens me for a bit, but it's probably for the better that it just builds its unsettling mood.

The Sprawl (Mountains Beyond Mountains): The obvious standout. It's the band stepping out of their comfort zone and tackling disco of all things-and yet it works magnificently.

I think I might have to help my girlfriend with Super Mario Galaxy here, so I guess I'm cutting things short, but in essence: it's not perfect, but it's a grower. And I'm totally fine with that.