Arcade Fire "The Suburbs" (ADVANCE)

The Arcade Fire are back! 3 years after the release of Neon Bible and 6 years after their world-changing debut, Funeral, the band re-introduces themselves with The Suburbs.

The Suburbs reminds me of the already classic film Inception. It is heavily layered. There's the main theme throughout the record; namely, growing up in the suburbs. But then there are additional themes within each song. Also like Inception, one of the first songs/images you see reappears at the end. In this case, the titular song opens the record and also closes it but with a sparser, orchestral mixing.

There are a lot of standout tracks here. Some of my favorites include The Suburbs, Modern Man, Rococo, Month of May, Sprawl & Sprawl II. And it's a much more diverse Arcade Fire than I'm accustomed to. They have the usual expansive strings, some real steam train rockers, and one electronic surprise.

Must hear: The Suburbs

(Release Date: 8/2/10)