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 Arcade Fire - Everything Now 
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Wallflower
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Post Arcade Fire - Everything Now
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This new album sounds bad. I know it's maybe ridiculous to say but I hate when I love a band's sound and then they put out an album that strays so far from what I love about them. Guess that's just me. Sounds like that will be this album.

Variety Review: http://variety.com/2017/music/reviews/a ... 202500557/

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To put it in the corniest possible terms, artistic progression can be a stairway to heaven or a slippery slope. The Beatles in the 1960s, David Bowie in the ‘70s and Prince in the ‘80s are gold standards of artists leading audiences to places they didn’t know they wanted to go — occasionally alienating fans and making the odd misstep but confidently charging forward, following the muse with self-awareness and self-assurance that it would all make sense in the end. Of course, the line between a beckoning hand and a middle finger is a fine one: Neil Young’s all-electronic album “Trans” and U2’s irony-laden “Pop” are classic examples of the muse leading the artist toward (if not over) a cliff.

The situation gets even more complicated when one of the world’s biggest rock bands seemingly grows tired of being a rock band — witness U2 in the 1990s and Radiohead in the early 2000s — which is apparently where Montreal’s Arcade Fire finds itself with its fifth album (and first through Columbia), “Everything Now.” Produced by the band with Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter, Pulp’s Steve Mackey and longtime associate Markus Dravs, it finds the group pushing against the boundaries of its template, trying on various styles — mutations of ‘70s pop, R&B, even dancehall — that sometimes work gloriously but often hang awkwardly on their anthemic sound like an ill-fitting new outfit (especially frontman Win Butler’s awkward attempts at rapping).

Yet if the only fruit of this collaboration were the album’s sparkling title track, it would have been worthwhile. A blatant tribute to Abba’s “Dancing Queen” (with a little bit of Yvonne Elliman’s disco-era hit “If I Can’t Have You” thrown in), it’s gilt and glittering and gorgeous, with a soaring, piano-driven hook and a swooning orchestra underpinning the surprisingly restrained verses. Sublime and sumptuous, it’s one of the year’s best singles.

Elsewhere, the fast and manic “Infinite Content” recalls the band’s shout-along earlier material before it segues abruptly into an acoustic arrangement reminiscent of their 2010 album “The Suburbs”; “Put Your Money on Me” combines a pulsing electronic bassline with a chorus that also evokes latter-day Abba; the closing “We Don’t Deserve Love” is a haunting ballad with a cascading keyboard melody loping over gentle acoustic guitars.


However, the forays into new terrain largely fall flat. “Signs of Life” starts off like an early ‘70s funk song (a la The Temptations’ “Papa Was a Rolling Stone”) with handclaps and a driving bassline and a distance police siren, then morphs into an ‘80s funk workout that recalls Blondie’s “Rapture,” with some spectacularly stiff rapping from Butler. “Creature Comfort” begins promisingly with a hot, buzzing beat but is marred by unsettling lyrics apparently about a suicide (“Some girls cut themselves, saying, ‘God, make me famous. If you can’t, just make it painless’”). “Electric Blue” has a strong groove and a zooming bassline but is hobbled by a screechy lead vocal from keyboardist Regine Chassagne. And the nadir comes with “Chemistry,” which has an awkward dancehall lilt in the beat and horns, a singsong melody and, heaven help us, more rapping.

“Everything Now” is the uncomfortable fusion that many feared Arcade Fire’s last one — 2013’s sprawling “Reflektor,” a collaboration with dance-rock avatar James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem — would be. But where that album found Murphy integrating a beefier bottom into the group’s familiar sound, this collaboration is a trickier fit. While the production throughout the album is stunning and Bangalter’s fingerprints abound — from the pulsating rhythm tracks reminiscent of Daft Punk’s recent work with The Weeknd to the soaring string arrangements that are a hallmark of their 2013 Grammy Album of the Year winner, “Random Access Memories” — the irony and deep references inherent in Daft Punk and Pulp’s work jars against Arcade Fire’s ingrained earnestness; the elaborate electronic rhythms clash with their anthemic, large-print hooks; and humor is a hat that this band wears uneasily. It would have been far worse had Arcade Fire played it safe — yet it remains to be seen whether this challenging and potentially polarizing album will inspire their rabid fanbase to follow pied-piper style, or resist like a dog being dragged to the vet.


Sat Jul 22, 2017 8:30 pm
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The Wall
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Post Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now
You do realize that they changed sound with each and every album so far or did you miss a couple of their albums in the meantime? They've already went electronic and disco on their previous album. From the singles they've released so far it seems like they only went further to establish those sounds and add something else to the mix. I see nothing wrong with that. Everything Now sounded completely like classic AF track when I heard them play it live. And I have no doubt that the rest of the album will fit in nicely with old songs once they start to play it more.


Sun Jul 23, 2017 1:41 pm
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Wallflower
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Post Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now
The other albums all worked for me though. This seems like a much bigger departure. But I'll wait and see. :)


Sun Jul 23, 2017 10:59 pm
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Pure Phase
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Post Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now
This album seems way closer to traditional first-two-albums Arcade Fire than Reflektor.

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Sun Jul 23, 2017 11:04 pm
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The Wall
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Post Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now
You're a bit weird. AF won't work for you because it's a big departure, yet LDR is very consistent sonically and while you like BTD and Ultraviolence, Honeymoon you didn't like (even though it is just as good and musically nearly identical to first two records).

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Sun Jul 23, 2017 11:41 pm
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Post Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now
Reflektor was a massive disappointment for me but based on the songs that have come out so far I have hopes this one will work out better

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Sun Jul 23, 2017 11:46 pm
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Angels & Demons
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Post Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now
Test Time FUCK


Mon Jul 24, 2017 12:33 am
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Post Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now
On first listen the album is amazing! Arcade Fire is back! I think as long as the songs have emotion their experimental style can work. "Everything Now" and "We Don't Deserve Love" are the standouts for me

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Mon Jul 24, 2017 1:14 am
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The Kramer
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Post Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now
Well Arcade Fire have never really had a signature sound. The variance of their songs is one of the biggest reasons they've become so popular. Plus Win said the words "Do you like rock n roll music? Cause I dont know if I do anymore." So this shouldn't be a huge surprise. :P


Mon Jul 24, 2017 11:21 am
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Wallflower
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Post Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now
_axiom wrote:
You're a bit weird. AF won't work for you because it's a big departure, yet LDR is very consistent sonically and while you like BTD and Ultraviolence, Honeymoon you didn't like (even though it is just as good and musically nearly identical to first two records).

People.


Nah I actually really dig Honeymoon now after listening to it recently. I listened to it a lot leading up to Lana's new CD. There are some great songs on it. I hadn't listened to it in a while.


Tue Jul 25, 2017 2:15 am
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Post Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now
Critics reviews are pretty rough. Fuck them - this is a highly enjoyable album that has both pop bangers and also attempts to go thematic depth about youth and death, love and society.

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Fri Jul 28, 2017 2:56 pm
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The Kramer
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Post Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now
Critics gave Royal Blood a 69 for sounding like their old songs and Arcade Fire a 69 for not sounding like their old songs.

The album is a solid A- for me. Slightly weaker than Reflektor, contiuning their tradition of every album being a little worse than the one before, but still damn good.


Fri Jul 28, 2017 4:17 pm
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Post Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now
Saw them last night, amazing show.

I still have this as album of the year and is one of their classics. It is one of those albums where every song is memorable to me. Even the worst ones (Chemistry/Infinite Content) stand out in their way. I've also been listening to Reflektor more and found some more songs on it I like, although it still doesn't click to me as a whole

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Sun Oct 15, 2017 1:48 pm
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