Review Summary: In their second full-length album Arcade Fire goes to even bigger sound, which results an excellent follow-up to Funeral.
Arcade Fire created something really unique with their debut, Funeral. The large Canadian band used a lot of unorthodox, orchestral instruments and assimilated them to their indie rock sound. With their second LP, Neon Bible, Arcade Fire give even more space to the baroque pop influences and manage to expand their sound into more unique. This is most notably shown in the short yet eccentric title track and the grandiose, organ-leaded “Intervention”. Of these two, in the title track Arcade Fire uses very interesting instruments. While not being anything magnificent itself, the title track really shows the talent of Arcade Fire.
Neon Bible is primarily a very bombastic record. For example the aforementioned “Intervention”, which is one of best tracks on the album, sounds massive and manages to be really effective song. However, it is not even nearly the only grandiloquent track on Neon Bible. Songs like “Ocean of Noise”, “Windowsill” and especially the album closer “My Body is a Cage” sound really big and ambitious. Unluckily “My Body is a Cage” is an awkwardly unnecessary track and the album could’ve easily ended with the fantastic “No Cars Go”. “Ocean of Noise” and “No Cars Go” are both real stand-out tracks on the album, the former having an excellent bass track and the latter being one of the more upbeat songs on the album, ending epicly being very loyal to the sound of Neon Bible.
While being really ambitious in total, Neon Bible also has some more convenient rock tracks. The best one of them is possibly the second track on the album, “Keep the Car Running”. It follows up the directional album opener “Black Mirror”, having a more ordinary sound than the majority of the album, still keeping the uniqueness of Arcade Fire in it. Another example is “(Antichrist Television Blues)” which offers a sound that reminds me of their upcoming album, The Suburbs.
Neon Bible goes deeper to the baroque pop sound than Funeral, which makes it more difficult to get into than Funeral. For me it took time to get into the album but when it grew on me, Neon Bible proved to be a great follow-up to their overwhelming debut. However, despite the ambitious sound Neon Bible lacks the biggest effectiveness compared to Funeral and has too many tracks that seem a little bit fillers, especially “The Well and the Lighthouse” and “My Body is a Cage”. It is still definitely a consistent record from Arcade Fire and not a disappointment by any means.
