Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 6-10 of 390
 I Work At Starbucks And I Love The Arcade Fire March 2, 2005
Sensitive Male Indie-Rock Fan (Brooklyn, NY United States)
21 out of 48 found this review helpful
Are you are wearing a brand-new pair of distressed lo-rise Diesel jeans, a ringer t-shirt with a silly 1970s logo printed on it, and perhaps a pair of suede Pumas? This is the ideal soundtrack to match your outfit, then: bland, trendy consumer product for your "alternative" lifestyle. The shrewd critical ears at Pitchfork named this the #1 album of 2004, and I'm sure the songs are soon to appear on "The O.C." No doubt this record's in heavy rotation right now at all the Urban Outfitters stores. Enjoy!
Soundwise, most of the tracks owe a big debt to Yo La Tengo (ambient guitarscapes) and Neutral Milk Hotel (string section, goofy/vulnerable lyrics). It seems a shame to compare either of those great bands to the Arcade Fire, however, except to suggest your money would be better spent on "Painful" or "In The Aeroplane Over the Sea" instead of this.
 Please, just shut up. December 26, 2004
A. Cordray (California)
20 out of 71 found this review helpful
What happened? What brought us to this? Was it a string of albums found on Pitchfork's greatest 100 albums of the '80s and '90s that led us to this garbage? This music that has a mountain of candy-sunglassed hipster praise slathered over it like barbeque sauce... it's like a joke on humanity. I can't rate this low enough.
I read all of the reviews on Amazon. All of `em. It was like a freak show of unbelievably mindless pandering. The sheer number, the outpouring for this record is absolute madness. The need for this album to be #1 of the year is almost epidemic. As incredulous as I am about that, I really can't even get past the music.
It's terrible. Even if this were your favorite band, I can't picture anyone on this planet consciously exposing them self to this in private more than three times in a year. The melodies are terrible. TERRIBLE. The female vocalist can't even channel Bjork right because the sonic backdrop to do so does not exist on this record. There are some song structures of interest here, but getting there is a lesson in horrific banality. This isn't exciting music. This is what you play when you want to listen to music that causes your brain to grow a cancerous tumor. This is what you force on yourself to look cool, like smoking a cigarette. You take in filth and convince as many people as you can that the allure is worth the price. This is what you buy to separate yourself from the herd.
 listen without hyperbole February 6, 2005
Nathan Bethea (Bloomington, IN USA)
18 out of 29 found this review helpful
I've waited to review this album for a reason. Since its release in September, it's become the biggest hype balloon since the Strokes' Is This It. One side is going to tell you that it's a landmark achievement, the best album of 2004, of the '00s, even. Another side is going to tell you that it's an overwrought ham-fest filled with blatant rip-offs and affected flourishes. I've been listening to this album since the week it came out, and by now I think it's been long enough to draw some conclusions.
Funeral is a frustrating record because it shows so much promise at times, but lets down horribly in others. The opener "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)" starts out like a muted lullaby and grows into a heaving, blazing monster of a rock song. However, not very many tracks are immediately likeable, and many are such obvious imitations of other bands that it's almost insulting. Sometimes they ape the Pixies ("Neighborhood #2"); sometimes they ape New Order ("Neighborhood #3"); they even manage to pull a shamelessly blatant Bjoerk rip-off ("In the Back Seat"). I'm all for wearing your influences on your sleeve, but Funeral is more than I can tolerate, especially when they're imitating innovative bands and adding only their own tragic yelps. I know Funeral was made in the wake of numerous deaths in the families of the band members, but that doesn't give it emotional sincerity by a long shot -- it just makes it more affected and overdone. The squawks on "Neighborhood #2" are great examples -- yeah, they might be trying to emulate the off-kilter combination of Black Francis and Kim Deal, but they wind up sounding like two deaf cats caught in a dryer.
Also, I'm somewhat put off by the immediate comparisons to acts like Brian Eno, Roxy Music or Built to Spill -- those bands created a sound on their own as opposed to wringing their hands impotently. I'm pleased, however, that people are recommending "Surfer Rosa" instead of this album -- at least the Pixies did it first.
Still, Funeral manages to redeem itself at times. "Rebellion (Lies)" is a just a great pop song molded by the Arcade Fire's dense post-rock aesthetic. "Wake Up" rocks so hard that it will wake you up at night - it's everything the new Trail of Dead album should have been (up until its entirely unnecessary segue into a campy, crappy closing part that sounds like Dexy's Midight Runners). For all its borrowing, "Neighborhood #3" is a pretty good song (they mimic New Order competently enough to throw in a Peter Hook bass part), and though "Crown of Love" is melodramatic and half-cooked, it ends with a sudden explosion of stabbing strings and thumping bass that will give even the most jaded troll goose bumps. "In the Backseat," contrived as it may be, closes the album on a soaring, searing note. It's worth hearing at least once.
It would be juvenile to throw Funeral into a love/hate get it/don't category. It's not a life-changing record, nor is it indicative of everything wrong with indie rock. It has some very bright moments that make me think the Arcade Fire will deliver in the future, but it lacks the consistency that a truly great album requires. Very few so-called "saviors of rock" are worth speaking in superlatives about, and this is certainly no exception.
Hollow Hype June 11, 2006
gnagfloW (Rosa Barks)
17 out of 62 found this review helpful
I subscribe to a magazine in the UK called Uncut. This magazine has introduced me to some really great acts such as Wilco, Drive By Truckers and Richmond Fontaine and opened my eyes to classic artists such as Bob Dylan and Emmylou Harris. When Uncut voted Arcade Fire's Funeral and Sufjan Stevens' Illinois as albums of the year 2005, I decided it would be worth a try checking out these artists, especially since the magazine's year end CD contained what seemed to be interesting songs by each group. It also covered Arcade Fire in great length, interestingly enough only that one time that I can recollect. Despite still loving the magazine, next year I will be more careful.
I must admit, I've never made it through Arcade Fire. The production is terrible like a 30 year old cassette tape was being used. What sounded interesting on one track became quickly irritating. Singing lessons are in order in Montreal because this is closer to whining than actual singing. Sufjan at least received more patience on my behalf, I managed to listen to it and come to think of it, that album is not entirely bad compared to AF. This is amateur hour at best bloated with what must be hype of 2005. Having given Sufjan only one star, I have second thoughts since I can't give Funeral zero stars, Sufjan at least deserved something but this is painful noise. Avoid!
Please go away February 1, 2005
D. Norbut (Long Island, NY)
16 out of 61 found this review helpful
There are only two ways I could explain the poplularity of this album.
1. People trust critics far too much. For some reason every lame Indie critic masturbates to this album.
2. People are actually so far gone from reality that they actually consider this album "quality."
I picked this album up (luckily not buying it) after a friend told me "he couldn't stop listening to it." I never really thought my friend's taste in music was that valid, but now I think he may actually have a hearing problem.
This is more garbage, "retro", "post-rock," "post-punk," whatever you want to call it. Fear any band that people call "post-anything." It probably means the band is a bunch of pretentious clowns who have lost all sense of reality. This music has no innovation, no passion, nothing. They sound like a really bad rehashing of something that wasn't that great to begin with.
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![FUNERAL [Vinyl]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61RWH06QN6L._SL500_.jpg)
