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Review Summary: Welcome to my neighborhood. I suppose everyone lives in a state of brief solitude at least once in their life. Shut out from the rest of the world and hidden from society like a ghost. Though sometimes I’d find myself in this sort of predicament, I couldn’t help but take a slight peek out of the small window in my dark bedroom. I didn’t really find excitement in thought provoking images found in everyday life. But the complication of hearing your own breath and staring blankly at a Nolan Ryan poster wasn’t any more thrilling. What I would see those bright summer days, through my tired blue eyes, was my neighborhood filled with more life than any dream of mine could ever imagine.
It’s the simple things that produced the colors that painted the image. I lived near an Elementary school that could be seen from my bedroom window, so it was often that the little children would all gather together during warm summer evenings to try their luck at a game of kickball. The kids slightly older, around 10-13 would take part in daily football or baseball games on the opposite side of the school yard. I remember the times when I was one of those kids. I didn’t need to care about my future and my biggest concern were auspicious visits from my grandparents who supplied me with a quick buck or two to buy a cone of ice cream. The neighborhood girls wore bright pink and yellow dresses, skirting around the streets without any sort of guy running their heart. It only took one gust of wind for it all to change.
Now I can’t remember my grandparent’s faces without a picture and those little girls I once knew with their pinks and yellows have been replaced with maroons and silvers. It’s sad to say my past was the best part of my life and that it never will be triumphed. Funeral returns me to my favorite moments in life. Sure it’s been said to death and it most likely will be etched into the fabrics of history forever, but Arcade Fire’s debut is just that incredible. Every song holds itself up like a scene in a person’s memory. Even though the scenes can be years apart, they all have a coherent sense of continuity to them. From the beginning of “Tunnels” to the end of “In the Backseat” everything feels like it had its reason to be there. Just like my own neighborhood when I was still young and happy.
Funeral is an empowering statement of how systems all rely on each other. The music can be summed up as one big equation, where every instrument and performance is equal to each other. For example, the expansive atmosphere that “7 Kettles” provide would be incomplete without the touch of a violin string that appears not so often, as the song wouldn’t give any trees to the mountain I imagine without it. The music makes great use of everything, and nothing sounds wasted or unwanted not even for a second. It gives the music a grand feeling, which magic is spiraling through your ears in a perpetual loop. “Tunnels” may go down as one of my favorite openers of all time, as it sets the bar for the album straight through the clouds and into the far reaches of space. I find it even better to note that everything follows the song up to the heavens, as not a single track falls behind on the way up.
Arcade Fire’s Funeral still to this day brings back the color of my youth into full detail. The instruments harmonize perfectly to form a breathtaking experience that I still have yet to doubt. An enthusiastic reminder that my neighborhood thrived off of everyone as a whole, I still see the children living out their lives the same way I used to. I can only smile and walk away, as some day my own son will be living out his life in a neighborhood of he calls home.
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Album Rating: 5.0
I decided for my 25th I'd take a look back into what I treasured a lot as a kid, though maybe this doesn't sound like such an intense look at the actual album, this is how I see it as. One of my all time favorites.
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
this reads like what I would imagine a stereo-typical arcade fire fan to write, I dont know if thats a compliment or a criticism, pos tho bcos I read it and it seemed like you tried
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
^That, basically.^ One or two minor errors but by and large it's well written.
I'd 5 this if I wasn't such a harsh marker.
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
Ah, idk I'm a sucker for this. And I'd say I'm a pretty big fan, so that may have rubbed off on the writing a bit. But thanks!
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some days i like this more than neon bible, but then i remember that neon bible has my favorite arcade fire songs, like: intervention, my body is a cage, antichrist, no cars go, keep the car running.
your review has some weird word choices and sentence structure, and overall i'd say it's sloppy and occasionally nonsensical, but it reads like a stream-of-consciousness piece, like you're just thinking out loud, and i kind of like that. pos
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
I wrote this up kinda quickly and I just finished a character analysis of Leopold Bloom from Ulysses, so maybe that's why it seems like that. I'll switch a few words around now, thanks though gyro!
| | | Album Rating: 3.5 | Sound Off
You're still getting too lost in your own ideas here. You still write reviews that are engaging reads because I can really feel your voice making great strides in development but you gotta start threading your heart through your mind a little more.
Keep writing though I was excited to see your name in New Reviews.
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
Thanks Kirk, I always find it good to see your name pop up in the comments. I gotta say Ive been reading your reviews to get a glimpse at what I think I should try to sound like. My writing wasn't that good in high school, that's why I'm studying hard to get better at it.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
"but it reads like a stream-of-consciousness piece, like you're just thinking out loud, and i kind of like that. pos"
The weird thing about that is that I write most of my reviews like that, and my ideas end up falling into place anyway. I never do any prior organization :P
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I really like your central concept in this. Reads very personal and reminded me a lot of my how I did my La Dispute review. Good read, pos
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
Guzzo, I read your La Dispute review when you first released it I think. Really liked it. Thanks dude.
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
Necrotica, when I think I sometimes do it too fast. Some of my better reviews came from when I took things slowly, Idk its weird haha
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
tbh I think 5 reviews should be stream of consciousness type reviews
your 5s are (theoretically) those albums that you relate to on a deeply personal level that pretty much everyone else doesn't get. So reviews that are just you spewing your feelings or painting a picture of how the album makes you feel seem completely appropriate.
idk maybe that's just me
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
^ I agree with this
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Nice review, wish I could write this good and personal, pos.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
Excellent review, man.
I'm gonna keep listening to this instead of Reflektor.
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Why did nobody seem to like Reflektor... >->
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
Thanks guys, and I liked reflektor actually.
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
Great review mate.
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
nice review. album is amazing, in the backseat is gahhhhh so perfect
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