Side Project: Library Listening Room (Introduction & Album #500)
Introduction
Rolling Stone published a list some years back called The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Before this was a Library, that was a solo project, but I didn't get very far. Lo and behold, in the intervening time, RS decided to completely revamp the entire list in September 2020! So, let's open the new Listening Room at the Library and start listening. [I'll link the albums through Spotify when possible so you can follow along, as well!]
Album #500 - Funeral, by Arcade Fire
Funeral came out in 2004 and has appeared on quite a few Top and Best of Lists - the 2000s, Canadian albums, and so on. The album was on the previous iteration of the Rolling Stone list, at 151. Prior to listening for this project, the only song I remembered from this album was "Rebellion (Lies)," which I still really like and has made it appearance on several . . . playlists, I guess we call them now (instead of the old-school mixed tapes and CDs we did as children of the 80s-90s *cough*). Rolling Stone sez:
Loss, love, forced coming-of-age, and fragile generational hope: Arcade Fire’s debut touched on all these themes as it defined the independent rock of the ‘00s. Built on family ties (leader Win Butler, his wife, Régine Chassagne, his brother Will), the Montreal band made symphonic rock that truly rocked, simultaneously outsize and deeply personal, like the best pop. But for all its sad realism, Butler’s is music that still finds solace, and purpose, in communal celebration.
This is a pretty solid album. You have sombre moments, but there are also shining bits of theatricality. Art-rock, lush strings, the plaintiveness of Win Butler's vocals, especially on "Crown of Love."
The album is apparently named Funeral because the band experienced quite a bit of loss the year it was recorded, but it's also a discourse on the passage of time, and how things change as we age, the places we used to know, and the people we love. Standout tracks are the opener, "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)," "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)," "Crown of Love," and "Wake Up."
