REVIEW: ARCADE FIRE - WE

4/5

The Fire WE Make.

Pandemics, war and so much more. It's the end of the world as R.E.M. knew it, but somehow we feel fine. At least sometimes. Some of that has to do with some of our favourite bands coming together and releasing tried and tested albums to tide us over through our trials and tribulations. See most recently, the Red Hot Chili Peppers ('Unlimited Love'), Band Of Horses ('Things Are Great') and The Lumineers ('Brightside'). No matter how many members leave or come back like John Frusciante. Even the fire of a classic Canadian band playing arcade games again after last year's original score 'Her' (the classic 'Lost In Translation' Spike Jonze response movie starring Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johansson). For their first full length studio album since 2017's 'Everything Now', Arcade Fire are saying 'WE', not me in this solidarity time of self were we all need to come together like John and Paul. Despite the departure of Will Butler (this is his last LP for the record) from this band of brothers. On the run, Win, his wife Régine Chassagne and the extended family of Richard Reed Parry, Tim Kingsbury and Jeremy Gara are still searching for victory in a time were we need to count our blessings as much as remember our losses. The indie outfit of alt, baroque pop giving a new testament to their 'Neon Bible' of a Bowie Stardust and LCD Soundsystem style as we put our hands together. This sixth studio album from Colombia records comes at a time were our palms are reaching out for it. Making its recording rounds in New Orleans, El Paso, Texas and Mount Desert Island in Maine. As when it comes to leaving America, the Canadian Butler just can't do it.

Yevgeny Zamyatin's Russian dystopia novel is the name behind 'WE' in all-caps for this statement sound. Whilst the arcade of the two lead singles light a fire under you. 'The Lightning I, II' strikes you as a big record in all its parts. "Fourth place anthem playing tonight, on a broken radio/I thought we reached the mountaintop, but now, we just feel so low/The sky is breaking open, we keep hoping, in the distance we'll see a glow/Lightning, light our way ’til the black sky turns back to indigo", Win sings before our ears...and eyes, like the pupil of this poignant album artwork, shot by French artist JR, with Terry Pastor airbrushing for the pastels. But it's the 'Unconditional I' first part telling you to 'Lookout Kid' that really feels like a weary, but warning anthem for the times we're living in together. All the way to the "do-do-do-do's", singing, "Lookout kid, trust your mind/But you can't trust it everytime/You know it plays tricks on you/And it don't give a damn if you are happy or you're sad/But if you've lost it, don't feel bad/'Cause it's alright to be sad." Truth be told. Truth be told.  All before the Genesis of Peter Gabriel comes in like a sledgehammer for the second act of 'Race and Religion' on a ten track album of basically five songs in a couple of parts and a prelude. It's almost biblical in its proportion. The message in this music having high magnitude in this 'Age Of Anxiety' we are truly living in. But like the outstanding opening of the same name and the title track classic curtain conclusion, 'WE' for the people is set to calm the stormy seas in your mind like the 45 minute instrumental 'Memories of the Age of Anxiety' piece that was promoted on the meditation app Headspace.

Through the looking glass like Alice in this wonderland the 'Rabbit Hole' takes you further. Don't unsubscribe like the signage seen around London. These gentle folks moving in meditative lullabies "missed you". Now it's time to groove to this dance-pop in a gentle shift. "Heaven is so cold/I don't wanna go/Father in heaven's sleeping/Somebody delete me/Hardy har-har", Butler tells us as he rabbits. Laughing like the Mad Hatter in an America he once told us has lost its ability to take a joke in this sense of wonder (see; Smith, Will and so many more grey areas to all this). We really do live in a time to fear being alive. Especially when knock, knock knockin' on heaven's door can wait. As we're not sure what lies beyond eternity's gate. The punctuation of a 30 second 'Prelude' on this 40 minute, top ten album especially profound in its power, before the 'End Of The Empire' parts I to IV strikes back like a star war. In the galaxy of this epic calm of a big record that was originally meant to be recorded in Texas during the election. 'Last Dance', 'Last Round', 'Leave The Light On' and 'Sagittarius A*' grading the curve of these chapters in this concepts conclusion. "One last dance/Here at the end of the empire/Makes me cry/Watching the moon on the ocean/Where California used to be/It's not half bad, oh/Spend half your life being sad/Well, don't be scared, oh-oh/Just chronically impaired, oh-oh/Just take my hand, oh-oh/Standing at the end of the American Empire," singing in storybook beginning to the makings of an epic. Why spend all that time sad, when you can be glad for the good tidings of this one carrying you over? Zamyatin's novel tells us, "a man is like a novel: until the very last page you don't know how it will end. Otherwise it wouldn't even be worth reading." 'WE', together, can make the end of our story better. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Age Of Anxiety I', 'Age Of Anxiety II (Rabbit Hole)', 'Unconditional I (Lookout Kid)'.