Sometimes beauty can come out of the most horrific ugliness. Liv Tyler, for example. The Arcade Fire has accomplished this as well, in ways that only those who have actually lived through ugliness can. Their debut Funeral is the cathartic product of the sadness that its members have witnessed; three close family members of those in the band died in the past two years. The album is their answer to all of the death around them, and while they are consumed by the ugliness the world has to offer, the romantic side of them just wont give up on life.
The songs that make up Funeral play like mini-orchestrations; each one has a unique sound and composition used to convey a different nuance of their emotional repertoire. The band has a remarkable ability to embellish their rock structures with classical flourishes that add to each song’s poignancy. The Arcade Fire has attempted to create the musical equivalents of real emotions, and unlike every other emo band, has succeeded. If bandmate Richard Reed Perry looked like Chris Carrabba instead of Napolean Dynamite, those emo kids would eat this stuff up.
Archived article by Jared Wolfe
Sun Staff Writer