EVERYTHING NOW
Columbia Records
Alternative Rock, Art Pop, Electro-Funk, Disco-Pop.
Listening Format: CD
Arcade Fire are genuinely one of my favourite Alternative/Indie Rock bands, especially of the past 10 years. I was fortunate enough to hear them right from the start when their self-titled EP first came out, and I remember the video premiere of 'Power Out' back in the pre-YouTube MTV2 days. I've enjoyed following this band throughout my twenties and I feel like they have always been flag wavers for forward thinking, grand, majestic, bold and ambitious Rock music. Their first three albums in particular are already classics of the genre and era in my eyes. I actually really enjoyed 'Reflektor' for the most part too.
Previous album 'Reflektor' saw a step into a more Electronic direction, with influences of Disco and Funk popping into their sound. I guess the whole Daft Punk and Pharrell Williams thing made a huge impact around the time. Arcade Fire also enlisted James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem fame to add his magic touch. Though the album received mixed reviews from fans and critics, Arcade Fire have decided to delve even further into the realm of Electro-Pop, Funk and Disco with their fifth full length, 'Everything Now'. Even before this album came out, a big chunk of their fanbase seemed to let out a collective groan, but surely such an innovative band can't sink that low... Right!?
From the first listen it is obvious that Arcade Fire have been listening to a lot of Abba, Talking Heads, Bowie's 'Young Americans' and even more LCD Soundsystem. 'Everything Now' is their most overtly Pop-centric, commercial and radio friendly album to date. In particular it sounds worlds away from the band who made the dark and brooding 'Neon Bible' album. Regardless, I think 'Everything Now' gets off to a fairly good start. The title track and lead single is so uplifting, boombastic and catchy. The chanted chorus will get stuck in your head, and the production is fantastically layered. Certainly Arcade Fire doing what they do best. The funky as hell Disco grooves on 'Signs of Life' actually work really well. There is such a strong influence of Abba, Chic and even Donna Summer on this track. There are even FREAKIN' AIR RAID SIRENS in the mix! Perfectly nostalgic, and yet refreshingly modern too. Second single 'Creature Comfort' kicks off with an infectious Goldfrapp-esque Electro groove, but is sadly let down by some really cringey lyrics. "She dreams about dying all the time / She told me she came so close / Filled up the bathtub and put on our first record"... Ugh really Win Butler? That is some bad self-congratulatory fourth wall breaking. The whole song's lyrics about self harm, suicide, depression and body dysmorphia just come across so obnoxious and over the top when paired with such a happy, bouncy melody. The song also suffers from adding too many layers. The amazing Electro-Funk groove of the intro could have easily have carried the song, but the layers of synths, Regine Chassagne's high pitched backing wails, and a glockenspiel melody that makes it sound like an '80s Christmas song... It's just loses any sense of subtlety. 'Chemistry' has to be the worst song this band have ever recorded. Like... What even is this?! How did it make the final cut of the album??? It's a proper cat-sat-on-the-mat happy little ditty that makes MGMT sound like Pink Floyd. 'Infinite Content' is another painfully underwritten song that suddenly brings in these Punk-influenced guitars sounding absolutely nothing like anything else on this album, and it just sounds so amateurish and far too polished, with all the edges rounded off... 'Electric Blue' is the token song with Regine Chassagne on lead solo vocals (there's at least one on every Arcade Fire record) and this is one of the better songs here. The funky disco grooves are back and actually suit the shiny production style they are going for, unlike the horror of 'Infinite Content' (which lasts less than two minutes long by the way). 'Electric Blue' has a catchy stomp with an icy high pitched wail that works really well, I could see this being a hit in Indie Rock club nights. Again it reminded me of Goldfrapp. What happened to Arcade Fire only sounding like Arcade Fire eh?
I don't want to go on describing every track on this album. What we have here is an incredibly mixed bag of songs. There are tracks that I genuinely enjoyed and feel fit in with the aesthetics and vibes that Arcade Fire are all about, but for the first time on an Arcade Fire, I'm hearing tracks that are genuinely terrible, underwritten, amateurish and directionless. A big surprise from such an accomplished band five albums into their journey. Arcade Fire are lucky enough to be in one of those rare positions, where they have complete creative control of their sound, have headlined Glastonbury Festival, and continue to have strong album sales. They've had a similar amount of critical acclaim and simultaneous chart success as Radiohead before them. A band in this incredible position should not at all be simplifying their sound and aiming to make their most radio-friendly, Pop and commercial sounds yet. This is the exact point where Arcade Fire should be dropping their most experimental, abstract and challenging material yet, like what Radiohead continued to do after the success story that was 'OK Computer'.
I'm pretty sure that no Arcade Fire fans wanted them to make this kind of record. And whilst the final results are far from being horrible, in fact I've enjoyed a good chunk of this record on a superficial level, but Arcade Fire have such a strong reputation to uphold. I really feel like Arcade Fire have just sold themselves short with this record. We all know they are capable of SO MUCH BETTER, they've proved it again and again in the past. 'Everything Now' is pretty mediocre, forgettable and just way too simplistic and middle of the road for a band of this stature. An absolute missed opportunity and a lack of ambition or direction completely haunt this record from start to finish. It's not bad, but it is also so far below all of their previous efforts that it is almost painful... 5/10.
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