10 years ago the Canadian band released their 3rd album named The Suburbs having a different vibe from the predecessors Funeral and Neon Bible, with a warmer sound but their passion, multi-instrumentalist talent and lyrics brought them an even bigger commercial success increasing their fan base, ten years later this album continues to shine in our memory.
The opening song gives name to the album as well, is a track where the piano guides you like If you were walking, remembering and wondering about certain things that made you the person who you are right now, but having that extra homesick connection with the places you experienced those moments. The next song “Ready to Start” along with “Empty Room & “Month Of May” are the tracks that bring the inner rock style of the band and “Rococo” has such a Neon Bible vibe that it almost feels that this song should have been part of that album but while being part of The Suburbs it just shows Arcade Fire ability of being able to mix sounds and genres.
“We Used To Wait” goes trough this love story where people used to send letters, now communication is so handy to everyone that sometimes the romanticism of that wait is over, “City With No Children” actually states on the opening lyrics “The summer that I broke my arm, I waited for your letter” seems that the band was inspired about that correspondence and waiting time of hearing about that special person, very interesting how all that has changed nowadays with text messages, video calls, zoom meetings but from time to time the detail of a handwritten letter is still special, don’t you think?
Following the tradition they had on their debut album Funeral, by having song titles with numbers along it, as part 1,2, etc. This record has Half Light (I & II) and Sprawl (I & II), where Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) is not vocally performed by Win Butler, but his wife Régine Chassagne where this is a song in which sometimes a break from all that is happening in the world is needed with lyrics such as “Living in the sprawl, Dead shopping malls rise like mountains beyond mountains, And there´s no end in sight, I need the darkness someone please cut the lights”.
The Suburbs actually won the Grammy for album of the year and there was criticism and some people wasn’t happy about this achievement, however 10 years later this album is a proof of the band musical quality compiling strong lyrics, snippets from their prior years and having a mature sound without missing that creativity as the multi-instrumentalist band they are, so Happy 10th Anniversary to Arcade Fire 3rd album! a record that is worth to listen from beginning to end on an empty room, walking by the city or coming back to the suburbs where everything began.
