Fans of Montreal band Arcade Fire can blow: WEhis sixth album, is vastly superior to the unloved Everything Now, launched five years ago. The album, conceived on two sides — the “I” side and the “WE” side, ultimately not so distinct — revives the unifying tunes that made the group so successful while retaining the best of the electronic sound explorations attempted on the double album Reflectorreleased in 2013. Above all, Win and Régine have rediscovered their raison d’être: composing songs to chase away the ambient anxiety.
Last March, Arcade Fire announced the imminent arrival of WE by unveiling a two-part song, either The Lightning Igently melodious, and The Lightning II, this one furious. Excerpts which are unanimously heard as a return to the elegiac rock foundations of the group’s first albums (which will revisit NBC studios on Saturday for a new episode of Saturday Night Live) and which open the second side of the album (“WE”), the richer of the two in terms of musical ideas as much as text.
Because the album, the musicians tell us, can be listened to in two stages. First the “I” side and its “age of anxiety” characterizing the American “end of the empire”, as Win laments on the beatlesque ballad End of the Empire I-IV : “ Don’t you weep, oh oh / Half your life fast asleep, oh oh / Feeling uninspired / Standing at the end of the American Empire “. Then the “WE” side and its saving electric shock The Lightning, a call to come out of our torpor. ” One-two-three-four! shouts Butler before the group gets carried away on a unifying melodic theme propelled by the skilfully nervous playing of Jeremy Gara on drums, as if the group were seeking to recreate the magic of Ready-to-Startfrom the album The Suburbs (2010).
In truth, WE less symbolizes a return to the indie-rock roots of Funeral (2004), neon bible (2007) and The Suburbs (2010) that an effort to correct the trajectory the group has taken with Reflector and which led to a dead end on Everything Now. Thus, the sequel Age of Anxietyjust like the effervescent synth-pop song Unconditional II (Race and Religion)on the second side — a song gratified with choirs sung by Peter Gabriel — recalls the bursts of synthesizers introduced in Reflector. The piano melody that opens the album reminds us of the talent that Butler and Chassagne have for simple and effective themes, but the vaguely disco impulse that characterizes the sequel brings back the influence of Giorgio Moroder, who had percolated in Reflector.
Preserve the emotion
The great musical novelty of WE lies in its production, ensured by Win, Régine and their new collaborator, Nigel Godrich, first known for his work with Radiohead (on OKComputer, among other feats). Lots of restraint, grooves suspended by the carefully chosen timbres of the synthesizers. Arcade Fire lets its songs breathe on WE like never before, playing first on the sound timbres, the rich colors of the keyboards, percussions, strings and guitars, favoring the climate over the energy without compromising the emotion, especially palpable on the second side of the album.
On the other hand, things spoil on the text side, the couple of songwriters rehashing once again their obsession for the evils of the Internet and their annoying tendency to distance us from human contact, a theme that we would have preferred confined to Everything Now. ” Dad built the labyrinth / And we were born in it / Blowing on the cartridge of Kid Icarus / Born into the abyss / New phone, who’s this? sings the couple on the sequel toAge of Anxiety. Win adds a layer before the end of the “I” side: “ I unsubscribe, I unsubscribe / This ain’t no way of life / I don’t believe the hype “.
Texts, like feelings, are best embodied on the “WE” side. One of the best on the album is Unconditional I (Lookout Kid). Despite the clumsy metaphors, Win and Régine sing for their son with touching sincerity: A lifetime of skinned knees / And heartbreak comes so easy / But a life without pain would be boring / And if you feel it, it’s fine / I give you everything that’s mine / I give you my heart and my precious time “, on a tune that promised to be folk, but which, when the violins and the rhythm section arrive, comes to recall an ABBA anthem.
And again, on the fragile title track concluding the album’s 40-minute run (and which begins with a recording of the famous “Next station” heard in the Montreal metro!), Win seems to have his heart in his throat when ‘he sings : ” When everything ends, can we do it again? / When everything ends, wanna do it again? If Arcade Fire hasn’t regained the prestige or relevance it had a dozen years ago, it certainly got it by designing WE that sincerity serves him much better than the cynicism distilled on Everything Now and that he was at his best singing hope opposite “WE” than disillusionment opposite “I”.