Customer Reviews
So and So 
2008-08-28
Quite good but not as good as I expected and how it is rated...maybe keeping on listening I will change my mind. Maybe.
At last, something fresh! 
2008-07-02
Recently discovered this band and I must say this is something special! At age 48 I have heard so much stuff and over the past years I thought I had just gotten too old (as it would be presumptuous to claim that modern music is going nowhere fast). So for those that listened and still listen to Prefab Sprout, Joy Division and even New Order, for those that enjoyed Echo and the Bunnymen's Heaven Up Here, well, check out these kids from Canada. It might just blow you away. Yes, the production is not always perfect, but these issues are just dwarfed by the great lyrics and the excellent timing of each element in the compositions. If you want to try it out with a download of a song or two, I suggest that you go for:
1. No cars go
2. Keep the car running
3. Antichrist television blues
4. Windowsill
Each of these songs have different elements to them and the lyrics on Windowsill just freaked me out ("you can't forgive what you can't forget")!
Enough already, have to get back to my iPod and this "urgent" music.
Improvements 
2008-05-27
*Review from a Classic Rock fan
I really felt that this album is much more diverse than Funeral. Whereas Funeral seemed to have an overall sound to it, this album makes it all much more interesting, adding a lot of organ and orchestral pieces. It starts and ends wonderfully, with "Black Mirror" in the beginning setting the stage for what is to come, and ending with "No Cars Go" (featured in Top Gear) and "My Body Is A Cage," which I loved and is my favorite song off the album. The structure of this song alone makes it great, but it is so much more than that, just like with the rest of the album.
Vocals, Check; Arrangements, Check; Instrumentation, Check; Lyrics, Hmmmm. 2008-04-25
Funeral sounds like a dance party compared to Neon Bible. All the elements that made Arcade Fire such a blast of fresh air are still firmly in place. What other group does the interplay between vocals and everything-into-the-mix instrumentation nearly as well? It's hard for me to think of one. But I've been hearing white guys sing about how awful things are and the coming apocalypse for pretty much four decades now and it is getting very old. Lyrics like "Mirror, mirror on the wall/Show me where the bombs will fall" (Black Mirror); "A vial of hope, a vial of pain" (Neon Bible), "Every spark of friendship and love/will die without a home" (Intervention) and others like them (and almost every song on Neon Bible offers a new example) have been stale for decades. Trying to be clever by dressing them in allusions to John Kennedy O'Toole does nothing to freshen them. It just shows off, as the one guy who made and makes such sentiments fresh once said, "useless and pointless knowledge."
More complete Album than Funeral 2008-04-14
After hating on this CD when it came out because it wasnt like Funeral, I finally took a listen and realized how amazing it is. It is a complete album that you should play from start to end to get the full feelin of each song. Funeral was more raw and didnt seem to have that tie between each song. Best tracks are 6, 10, and 11.
Their live show is dope as well.
Different than Funeral, but still good. 2008-04-13
The second album from Montreal's Arcade Fire exceeds all expectations. With string and orchestral arrangements by two of the band members, "Neon Bible" is full of both half-assed punk rock mistakes and meticulously orchestrated woodwinds. Processed strings and mandolin. Quiet rumbles and loud rumbles. But mostly just eleven songs that the band thinks are really good.
amazing 2008-03-31
I bought this album expecting a lot, but it somehow exceeded my expectations. I recommend to everyone.
Complex and moving sound and lyrics 2008-03-12
I bought this after watching Arcade Fire on Austin City Limits. I cannot imagine a more high-energy stirring show on a small studio stage. The music just blew me away coming from so many unusual instruments played in frenetic activity. It's hard to place their music but I felt strains of Talking Heads, Sugarcubes/Bjork, Cranberries, rockabilly and folk music. The music and lyrics moved me. Their songs seem to talk about big and deep things. The music is often just as hard and powerful. AF has a unique sound--once heard you will not confuse them with any other band. My favorites are the anthemic Antichrist TV Blues, Black wave, Ocean of noise, Windowsill but there is not a single song I would skip on this album. I also bought Funeral after this and it is just as good with Wake up, Haiti, Rebellion.
Best Album of 2007 - and possibly the next great Band 2008-01-31
In the 1980s, the pop music landscape got littered with synth-pop - synthesizer and keyboard-laden sounds. The 1990s music landscape saw Alternative Rock begin to basically become part of the mainstream music fold. Alternative Rock began to incorporate a more natural guitar-laden sound emphasizing both electric and acoustic guitars. To some extent the dominance of the guitar-laden sound has put keyboards and synthesizers in the background. Many have made the argument that the music of the 2000s has a "cookie cutter" sound. This has alienated some hard-core music fans and is definitely a contributing factor to the music tailspin that has taken place in the 2000s. As a result, the music industry has become ripe for a new sound. In 2007, a Canadian band from Montreal emerged seeming ready to take the mantle. Arcade Fire's sophomore full-length album, "Neon Bible" might be a "dark" sounding album, but the incorporation of an orchestral sound brings a much needed change of pace to the "cookie cutter" sound of the 2000s. In fact, I'll feel this might be the best thing to happen to the music industry in 25 years - and easily helps "Neon Bible" claim the title as "Best Album of 2007"
In the early 1980s, I remember telling people that U2 was going to become the next big sensation in music. I wasn't alone in those thoughts as I had heard many people echo those thoughts. When "Neon Bible" made the airwaves in 2007, I remember hearing a lot of positive things about the band. Once I heard "Neon Bible", I was convinced that I had now heard the next great sensation in music. Arcade Fire didn't come from left field as their debut album "Funeral" had garnered some significant attention in the music industry. "Funeral" had a very dark tone to it. The sound of "Funeral" has an orchestral feel - with a big emphasis on the strings. In a lot of respects "Neon Bible" expands on this sound by incorporating the use of a pipe organ and gospel choir type sounds. It are these instruments incorporated into some terrific arrangements that help this album stand above many others.
As for the vocals, these are primarily handled by the husband/wife duo that forms the nucleus for Arcade Fire - Wim Butler and Regine Chassagne. It is Butler who primarily handles the vocals and Chassagne takes more of a secondary role. Still having two vocalists makes the sound twice as good. It adds to the appeal of this band and helps this album emerge as the best of 2007.
"Neon Bible" is going to be one of those albums requires several listens. Each time you listen, it will grow on you and you will learn something new. Here is a track by track synopsis.
"Black Mirror": The title of this song sets the "dark" tone for this album and once you listen to the instrumentation, this backs it up. The orchestral sound is alive and well, but it gets a great lead-in from some Timpani drums. Listen to how Chassagne's vocals supplement Butler perfectly as this is a pattern throughout the whole album.
"Keep the Car Running": This has a bit of a mainstream and Rock feel. This explains why Bruce Springsteen covered this song in concert. Great track.
"Neon Bible": This is a slow and haunting track. The chorus has a mantra-like feel to it. Of all of the tracks on the album, it relies the least on instrumentation.
"Intervention": Home-run track. The song opens with a pipe organ that continues throughout the song. Here Butler's vocals really shine. This song has a terrific "build up" to a crescendo that layers a Rock sound on top of it. The choir adds a great effect.
"Black Wave/Bad Vibrations": This is a tale of two tracks. Chassagne handles vocals in the first part ("Black Wave" - featuring some great French vocals) and Butler handles it on the second part ("Bad Vibrations"). Entire part has a dark feel, but it gets darker during Butler's part of the song. The choir kicks in in the second half as well.
"Ocean of Noise": This track opens with the sounds of the ocean followed by instrumentation that reflects the sound of the ocean. The instrumentation almost has a Dire Straits feel to it. The timpani drums really play a pivotal role toward the end of the track.
"The Well and the Lighthouse": This song has a true alternative rock feel to it as it opens, but listen to the outstanding instrumentation. Chassagne's background vocals are spot on.
"(Antichrist Television Blues)": This track has a guitar sound to it, yet it sounds nothing like the cookie cutter music of the 2000s. The choir does a great job at supplementing the sound. The sudden ending to the song fits perfectly.
"Windowstill": This might be the most underrated track of the album. The orchestral-like sounds don't come in until midway through the track, but when they do - they add a perfect touch to this track. Butler does a great job using his vocals to control the tempo of the song.
"No Cars Go": A terrific duet by Butler and Chassagne. This song appeared on a prior EP (not counting that as a full album), but now has a deeper orchestral arrangement. Another Home-run.
"My Body is a Cage": This song has a feel a lot like the title track. While the beginning doesn't rely on instrumentation, the ending does- using all of the power of the orchestra and pipe organ. This is the perfect wrap-up song.
The liner notes include the lyrics, but I wish it would have done a better job at crediting the musicians that make up Arcade Fire. The only question about Arcade Fire is can they keep this up in the future and truly take the title of the next great band? Time will tell.
An Unbelievable Follow Up to Funeral 2008-01-28
With the enormous success of Arcade Fire's debut, "Funeral," there would be a lot of success if the band's sophomore release would live up to the magnificence of the previous release. After listening to "Neon Bible" I believe the answer is yes. "Neon Bible" can be described in one word: Huge. Not because it's a long album but because the sound of the band and the vocals is just Huge with a capital H. Arcade Fire offers us a huge spectrum of colors and sounds in the orchestration of this album. The listener is assaulted with guitars, organs, strings, toy pianos, glockenspiels, brass and on the penultimate tour de force that is "No Cars Go," a full orchestra supports the band. It's a listening experience that raises your heartbeat and your body temperature.
The production is also clean and more polished than "Funeral" and so the sound is more amicable to my tastes at least. While the band's debut is amazing, the sound quality is a little fuzzy, whereas "Neon Bible" offers a crystal clear sound that has as much substance and density as a Powerbar. Win Butler's vocals also seem to be a lot more controlled on this album than Funeral, which is an improvement that I welcome with open arms as the vocals on Funeral were the thing that hindered me from seeing it as the masterpiece that it is.
The lyrics make beautiful poetry. Just look at the lyrics for the opening track "Black Mirror" and you'll see what I mean. I love it when there are lyrical elements that tie an album together and "Neon Bible" has this consistent thread of religious imagery and water imagery throughout the whole album. As for what the lyrics are trying to say collectively as an album, I can't say. The lyrics themselves are quite subjective and obscure, but this makes for an even better listening experience in some ways as the album's meaning becomes a personal part of each listener.
Arcade Fire has done a great job. It makes me incredibly excited to hear the next album. Because if they can surpass this, somebody better be standing by to give me mouth to mouth.
