1015. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible (2007)

Track Listing

1. Black Mirror
2. Keep The Car Running
3. Neon Bible
4. Intervention
5. Black Wave/Bad Vibrations
6. Ocean Of Noise
7. The Well And The Lighthouse
8. (Antichrist Television Blues)
9. Windowsill
10. No Cars Go
11. My Body Is A Cage

Review

Arcade Fire do it again! Against all odds they manage to make an album which lives up to their début and then some. It is in fact hard to tell if it is better or worse than their first album, but it is different which is good enough for me.

Clearly drawing not only from their own sound but from people like Bruce Springsteen (just listen to Antichrist Television Blues), they manage to inject the album with a different feel from Funeral while resolutely remaining themselves.

Interestingly the best track in the album is an old one, No Cars Go is a track all the way back from their first EP, but it is remade to fit the album in an explosion of epicness. However there is no a single less than great track throughout. Highly recommended.

Track Highlights

1. No Cars Go
2. Keep The Car Running
3. Intervention
4. My Body is a Cage

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Following the release of Funeral, which had been recorded in an attic studio known as Hotel 2 Tango, Arcade Fire decided a permanent recording location was necessary. Following their tour in support of Funeral, the band bought the Petite Église in Farnham, Quebec. Being used as a café at the time of purchase, the Petite Église had once been a church and a Masonic temple. Once renovation of the church was complete, the band spent the latter half of 2006 recording a majority of the album there. They additionally recorded in Budapest, where a Hungarian orchestra and a military men's choir were used. Other sessions included one in New York, where the band recorded along the Hudson River to be near water.

Arcade Fire in Lisbon with No Cars Go: