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Arcade Fire - Everything Now

Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2017 3:04 pm
by BleuPanda
Everything Now comes out tomorrow...and early reviews are kind of concerning. It currently has a 75 on metacritic with more mixed than positive reviews (and more mixed reviews than Reflektor had overall with less than a third of the reviews...). It looks like we might be getting our first Arcade Fire album that isn't a critical darling.

Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now

Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2017 3:56 pm
by Setherex
BleuPanda wrote:It looks like we might be getting our first Arcade Fire album that isn't a critical darling.
Even better, actually!

It's bad.

Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now

Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2017 5:00 pm
by Maschine_Man
Cut out the middle third of this album and we can start to discuss how it could be saved.

This is a sad development.

Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now

Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2017 5:09 pm
by StevieFan13
...just saying, they've never put out anything better than Funeral...

Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now

Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2017 5:49 pm
by BleuPanda
Jesus, it's dropped to a 69.


StevieFan13 wrote:...just saying, they've never put out anything better than Funeral...

So? While Funeral is a 9.9/10 for me, the three that followed are all high 8s. Many bands start with their strongest work.

Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now

Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2017 6:01 pm
by StevieFan13
BleuPanda wrote:Jesus, it's dropped to a 69.


StevieFan13 wrote:...just saying, they've never put out anything better than Funeral...

So? While Funeral is a 9.9/10 for me, the three that followed are all high 8s. Many bands start with their strongest work.
Not necessarily. I wouldn't necessarily call the debuts of Billy Joel or Blur their best work. Arcade Fire just hit it out of the park and - just speaking personally - none of their subsequent albums have been as good to me.

Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now

Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2017 6:04 pm
by BleuPanda
StevieFan13 wrote:
BleuPanda wrote:Jesus, it's dropped to a 69.


StevieFan13 wrote:...just saying, they've never put out anything better than Funeral...

So? While Funeral is a 9.9/10 for me, the three that followed are all high 8s. Many bands start with their strongest work.
Not necessarily. I wouldn't necessarily call the debuts of Billy Joel or Blur their best work. Arcade Fire just hit it out of the park and - just speaking personally - none of their subsequent albums have been as good to me.
...you do know what 'many' means, right? I didn't say all artists.

Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now

Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2017 6:05 pm
by StevieFan13
BleuPanda wrote:
StevieFan13 wrote:
BleuPanda wrote:Jesus, it's dropped to a 69.






So? While Funeral is a 9.9/10 for me, the three that followed are all high 8s. Many bands start with their strongest work.
Not necessarily. I wouldn't necessarily call the debuts of Billy Joel or Blur their best work. Arcade Fire just hit it out of the park and - just speaking personally - none of their subsequent albums have been as good to me.
...you do know what 'many' means, right? I didn't say all artists.
Fair enough.

Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now

Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2017 7:29 pm
by BleuPanda
I decided to go through and look due to this conversation. There are 18 bands in the top 100 on this site who have their first album as their highest ranked:
Elvis Presley
The Velvet Underground
The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Van Morrison
Arcade Fire
The Doors
John Lennon
Daft Punk
Bjork
Sex Pistols
Leonard Cohen
Ramones
Massive Attack
Portishead
Patti Smith
Buddy Holly
Pavement
Arctic Monkeys


I think the early 2000s had this happen kind of frequently with its major acts; The Strokes and Franz Ferdinand both started off seeming like the next big thing due to an amazing debut and quickly faded after their second albums. I think there are a lot of first albums where a band got together, created a new sound, and were then unable to innovate past that point (and in those cases, we tend to talk about that specific album more than the band). Most of the bands that stick with us, however, are usually around for a while, but can still easily start with their peak. Even if every album after Funeral was a step down...that's still 4 albums in the all-time top 500. Many bands would kill to have even one.

Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now

Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2017 8:00 pm
by Pierre
Arcade Fire are one of my favourite bands ever, and with all due respect to Neon Bible and The Suburbs, Reflektor is my second favourite Arcade Fire album and I really hoped it marked the promise of a renewed evolution for the band. Really disappointed to see how it's turning out. I haven't listened to the album yet, but how can I keep my hopes up after that? Hopefully, the world is wrong but I don't bet much money on it, or they're just hitting a temporary slump.

Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now

Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2017 11:18 pm
by Live in Phoenix
Without commenting directly on the album, I have my informal theory that even great artists might have 10 legendary years, give or take, then something takes a bad turn (weaker albums, if not break up or death). Funeral is from 2004...

Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now

Posted: Fri Jul 28, 2017 12:02 am
by Madzong
My favourite albums by Arcade Fire are The Suburbs and Neon Bible (in that order).

Sad news about the new album though... :(

Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now

Posted: Fri Jul 28, 2017 12:22 am
by Listyguy
Have not heard the new album, but I've always viewed Neon Bible as the weakest of the first four.

Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now

Posted: Fri Jul 28, 2017 1:53 am
by Madzong
BleuPanda wrote:Everything Now comes out tomorrow...and early reviews are kind of concerning. It currently has a 75 on metacritic with more mixed than positive reviews (and more mixed reviews than Reflektor had overall with less than a third of the reviews...). It looks like we might be getting our first Arcade Fire album that isn't a critical darling.
BTW BleuPanda - I like your Twin Peaks Avatar!

Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now

Posted: Fri Jul 28, 2017 2:54 am
by luvulongTIM
I think they might have it in them to pull a "Flaming Lips Soft Bulletin" sized comeback. Radiohead even released kind of a stinker before their well received last record. This is just a misstep. Give them either two more albums or until the lead singer hits the big 4-0 to officially count them out and even than there's still hope. It's a big band so maybe new younger members will rejuvenate them ala Swans.

Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now

Posted: Fri Jul 28, 2017 5:12 am
by Nick
After listening to the pre-release singles a good amount, and having now heard the album in full once, I have to say that I mostly agree with the critics here. Everything Now is a good album, but easily the worst Arcade Fire album to date. All four of their previous albums are in my top 200 albums of all time. Unless my opinion on this record radically shifts, Everything Now has just about zero chance of cracking my top 500.

Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now

Posted: Fri Jul 28, 2017 5:17 am
by Nick
Also, just saw that Pitchfork gave the album a 5.6. Yeah. Ouch.

Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now

Posted: Fri Jul 28, 2017 10:04 am
by Chambord
Q: Is the Universe ready for an Arcade Fire album not being good ?
A: No

Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now

Posted: Fri Jul 28, 2017 10:14 am
by Chambord
Nick wrote:Also, just saw that Pitchfork gave the album a 5.6. Yeah. Ouch.
It's their only album not receiving "Best New Album" label from Pitchfork. And rated almost 3 points (!!) lower than their "worst" so far (Neon Bible - 8.4)

Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now

Posted: Fri Jul 28, 2017 1:58 pm
by BleuPanda
Listening to it now; "Creature Comfort" sounds like what a Fox News host thinks a millennial thinks like. They really need to get off this whole 'social media is evil' thing. Win Butler sounds like a grumpy old man who can't accept that things change.

Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now

Posted: Fri Jul 28, 2017 2:26 pm
by Jirin
Surprised how negative this thread is. Glad I listened to it before reading reviews.

Yeah it's no Funeral, but it's got some strong singles and I don't think it's 'grumpy old man' to have cultural whiplash about the effect of social media.

Things change, and some of this change is positive, but the shift toward rabid dispassionate consumerism driven by a constant stream of instant gratification that makes information indiscernible from entertainment is certainly not.

Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now

Posted: Fri Jul 28, 2017 7:27 pm
by Jackson
BleuPanda wrote:I decided to go through and look due to this conversation. There are 18 bands in the top 100 on this site who have their first album as their highest ranked:
Elvis Presley
The Velvet Underground
The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Van Morrison
Arcade Fire
The Doors
John Lennon
Daft Punk
Bjork
Sex Pistols
Leonard Cohen
Ramones
Massive Attack
Portishead
Patti Smith
Buddy Holly
Pavement
Arctic Monkeys


I think the early 2000s had this happen kind of frequently with its major acts; The Strokes and Franz Ferdinand both started off seeming like the next big thing due to an amazing debut and quickly faded after their second albums. I think there are a lot of first albums where a band got together, created a new sound, and were then unable to innovate past that point (and in those cases, we tend to talk about that specific album more than the band). Most of the bands that stick with us, however, are usually around for a while, but can still easily start with their peak. Even if every album after Funeral was a step down...that's still 4 albums in the all-time top 500. Many bands would kill to have even one.
This is an interesting list (though Astral Weeks wasn't Van Morrison's debut album).

Of the ones on the list, I'd say there's little consensus that the debuts by about half are really their best, especially for Bjork (Homogenic), Daft Punk (Discovery), Massive Attack (Mezzanine), Hendrix (Electric Ladyland), and Pavement (Crooked Rain). I guess some would say the same on Arcade Fire with The Suburbs, but I'm in the camp that thinks that album is highly overrated and Funeral is their only real great album.

Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now

Posted: Fri Jul 28, 2017 10:50 pm
by StevieFan13

Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now

Posted: Fri Jul 28, 2017 11:51 pm
by Moonbeam
What I've heard at least sounds more promising than The Suburbs at least, not that this is saying much.

Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now

Posted: Fri Jul 28, 2017 11:58 pm
by Henry
The review at https://slate.com/arts/2017/07/arcade-f ... iewed.html indicates that there are likely four forgettable songs on the album, including "Peter Pan" and "Chemistry."

The reviewer appeared to appreciate some other tracks such as "Creature Comfort" and "Electric Blue."

Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now

Posted: Sat Jul 29, 2017 12:27 am
by Nick
This is the main thing that really bogs down the album. Everything Now is 13 songs. 4 of them are interlude type tracks. And of the remaining 9, 3 are decent to bad (from most tolerable to least, Good God Damn, Peter Pan, and Chemistry).

That leaves 6 of the original 13 that are worth your time. And even of those songs, there is nothing here that can match the brilliance of "Wake Up" or "Intervention" or "Reflektor" or any of Arcade Fire's other classic songs.

Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now

Posted: Sat Jul 29, 2017 11:12 am
by Pierre
BleuPanda wrote:I decided to go through and look due to this conversation. There are 18 bands in the top 100 on this site who have their first album as their highest ranked:

Bjork
It just struck me today, completely out of the blue. Debut isn't Björk's first solo album.

But yeah, I know.

Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now

Posted: Sat Jul 29, 2017 9:19 pm
by Kingoftonga
Pierre wrote:
BleuPanda wrote:I decided to go through and look due to this conversation. There are 18 bands in the top 100 on this site who have their first album as their highest ranked:

Bjork
It just struck me today, completely out of the blue. Debut isn't Björk's first solo album.

But yeah, I know.
I've always been curious about Debut's high ranking, because at least in the United States, Post and Homogenic seem a lot more critically acclaimed. Maybe it's not that way in other parts of the world?

Nothing I've heard from Everything Now has compelled me to listen to it right away, and this is coming from somebody who really liked Reflektor. I'll give it a listen at some point, but it feels strange that I'm not more excited about this. I get the same vibe from a lot of people - every previous AF release felt like an event; this one feels almost like a chore.

Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now

Posted: Sat Jul 29, 2017 11:34 pm
by DaveC
'Everything Now' and 'Creature comfort' have been in the AMF weekly chart for a while now and I haven't voted for either of them because there have been 10 better songs each week. I'm not surprised by the reaction to the full album. I am surprised that those two songs both look like making the AMF weekly hall of fame.

Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now

Posted: Sun Jul 30, 2017 2:34 pm
by Pierre
OK, I finally gave it a shot. Well, it sounds to me like they've been listening to a lot of ABBA, new wave and punk rock before doing this one, so they made an album influenced by these sounds, including occasional protest stuff and social commentary (you gotta read that fast); music-wise, it also helps that new wave revival is fashionable right now. However, being influenced by punk isn't an excuse for poor songwriting, with lyrics that aren't even that biting and Butler's delivery being too sedate to feel punk-ish or protest-ish (let's not talk about Chassaigne's), while the album features next-to-no memorable hooks to make up for that and carry the songs. It's definitely not a good album, quite mediocre at best.

I'm leaving this one behind. Eyes forward for LCD Soundsystem now, hoping James Murphy is aging better.

Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now

Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2017 5:22 pm
by Matski
Kingoftonga wrote:I've always been curious about Debut's high ranking, because at least in the United States, Post and Homogenic seem a lot more critically acclaimed. Maybe it's not that way in other parts of the world?

Nothing I've heard from Everything Now has compelled me to listen to it right away, and this is coming from somebody who really liked Reflektor. I'll give it a listen at some point, but it feels strange that I'm not more excited about this. I get the same vibe from a lot of people - every previous AF release felt like an event; this one feels almost like a chore.
With Debut, you're kinda right though these days it's more of a generational thing than an American thing. Many American writers did give it middling-to-bad reviews upon release but they usually weren't the kind of publications you'd expect to identify new sensations, especially in electronic music - Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, etc. Other US outlets that are more attuned to electronic music tend to speak highly of it - AllMusic, Treblezine, etc.

Agree with you about Arcade Fire. By the time Reflektor arrived I was open to a change of direction from the band and really enjoyed many of the tracks from the get-go. The biggest problem I felt with Reflektor was that it's too bloated. Cut away five (or so) of the weakest tracks to take it down to a single album and you've got something that could possibly stand alongside the rest of their oeuvre. With Everything Now, even best tracks are ones' I'd only class as decent at best.

Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now

Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2017 11:36 am
by Araluenian
It's okay. It's the first Arcade Fire album that, to me, doesn't sound like it was made by a world-class rock/pop band. The songwriting is often lazy, the production sometimes generic, and the lyrics skirt triteness and banality far too often for my liking. There's just way too much filler here to be as great (or as important) an album as it seems to think it is.

It does have some moments that give me cause for optimism, though. The album bookends itself well, the title track is still a bit too long but is growing on me, "Signs Of Life" and "Creature Comfort" are solid, and both "Put Your Money On Me" and "We Don't Deserve Love" deserve to join the ranks of great Arcade Fire songs.

Rating: 14/20

Favourites: "Creature Comfort", "Put Your Money On Me", "We Don't Deserve Love"
Least Favourites: "Peter Pan", "Chemistry", "Infinite_Content" (its companion, "Infinite Content", is just as bland in its writing and lyrics, but has more energetic production, is shorter, and benefits from being the first of these two lyrically identical tracks)

Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now

Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2017 5:07 pm
by Maschine_Man
I feel like the band should have pulled a Station To Station this album cycle, especially considering their last record featured Bowie.

Combine all the Everything Now parts into single track that builds to the main song and sell the single as a radio edit. Cut Creature Comfort to the end of the Infinite Content set and include a more fleshed out version of I Give You Power (which I don't care what people say, it's still better than most of the songs on this record). Now you have yourself a nice little 7 track album with no fat (and might have garnered a better response from critics).

I think this would have played well into many issues I feel musicians are facing in the streaming age: bloated albums and a lack of B-sides.

Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now

Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2017 3:51 pm
by Sunwoo1213
Disappointing album. Initially i was waiting for this album.. because the first single, Everything Now was awesome. But Other singles were not good as the first one.. And I Listened to a full album when it was released.. and disappointed. I Hope their next album to be good as funeral, or neon bible, or suburbs..

Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now

Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2017 8:58 pm
by Nassim
It's not that bad, the first 15 minutes are pretty solid and the rest while not memorable is not terrible either (well, the double infinite_content is clearly unnecessary, whatever's the concept behind, and Regine's voice on Electric Blue is pretty grating). I feel if people weren't so ready for an Arcade Fire backlash, the metacritic score would be much closer to 80.

I wouldn't count it out for making it to AM though, especially once the album list is extended : NME gave 5 stars, les Inrocks gave it a stellar review (as they just did for HAIM, and a pretty good review for Valerian, at least you can't say they follow the trend), Paste, the Independent and EW are pretty positive too so it should have a bunch of high placements and several low ones due to the benefit of being an album everyone has listened too.

Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now

Posted: Thu Aug 03, 2017 1:54 pm
by BleuPanda
I happen to be relistening to Reflektor for I think the first time since its release (I've been relistening to all the albums from the 2010s in the top 1000 on the AM list). The album didn't leave much of an impact on me, but I remembered it still being strong. As I listen through, it still holds up. There's something about the sonic texture here that I never got the sense of over the course of Everything Now. Even the 'b-sides' hold a strong place in this album; I'm going to immediately forget what they sound like, but in the moment, they really work.

In parts, it's hard for me to articulate my issues with Everything Now. The lyrics are a clear and easy problem, but I'd surely overlook them if there was something else to hook into. But where pretty much every single track on Reflektor has this smooth texture, I never get that sense from Everything Now. The title track is still a great song; but even it lacks the kind of energy I find in the 'weaker' tracks on Reflektor. There's this sonic thread that kind of carries through each Arcade Fire album; whether or not a track stands on its own, they fit perfectly in the grand scheme of the album. I feel like that's the great missing piece of Everything Now; where their previous albums were tightly bound, Everything Now is massively expansive. It covers a variety of genres, but there's such a clash that each track feels like its own island. Where a band like LCD Soundsystem works in the energy of contrast ("let's smash a high energy dance-punk track headfirst into a song that will make everyone cry"), it doesn't seem to add up to anything here. Funnily enough, I think it's because the lyrics have the opposite problem; where the style changes, the message largely remains the same. And, where the transitions on previous albums were seamless, they are surface level on Everything Now ("look, the album can loop endlessly because it begins and ends with the same song in a different style").

I'm hoping this is a case of a band trying something new and it simply not working; if this sounded like their previous records, I'd fear they lost their way, but this can at least be treated as an experiment that didn't quite work in their favor.

And I don't think many people think this is a bad album; it's a 6 or 7 out of 10 album.

Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now

Posted: Thu Aug 03, 2017 7:42 pm
by BleuPanda
Nassim wrote:I wouldn't count it out for making it to AM though, especially once the album list is extended : NME gave 5 stars, les Inrocks gave it a stellar review (as they just did for HAIM, and a pretty good review for Valerian, at least you can't say they follow the trend), Paste, the Independent and EW are pretty positive too so it should have a bunch of high placements and several low ones due to the benefit of being an album everyone has listened too.

Actually, now I'm wondering, does anyone know the lowest Metacritic score for an album featured in the top 3000? I knew off the top of my head I Get Wet would be low (it's a 64), but it's just bubbling. Scrolling through 2014, Alt-J's album has just a 70 (though Alt-J has a notable split between American critics and elsewhere). How many are below 70?

Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now

Posted: Thu Aug 03, 2017 7:46 pm
by Pierre
BleuPanda wrote:
Nassim wrote:I wouldn't count it out for making it to AM though, especially once the album list is extended : NME gave 5 stars, les Inrocks gave it a stellar review (as they just did for HAIM, and a pretty good review for Valerian, at least you can't say they follow the trend), Paste, the Independent and EW are pretty positive too so it should have a bunch of high placements and several low ones due to the benefit of being an album everyone has listened too.

Actually, now I'm wondering, does anyone know the lowest Metacritic score for an album featured in the top 3000? I knew off the top of my head I Get Wet would be low (it's a 64), but it's just bubbling. Scrolling through 2014, Alt-J's album has just a 70 (though Alt-J has a notable split between American critics and elsewhere). How many are below 70?
M83's gonna get Junk on AM with a 66, and I'm still rolling my eyes in my orbits as of today regarding that. Then again, I'm not sure they'll get in the top 3000.

Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now

Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2017 3:10 pm
by Listyguy
Listened to this one and reviewed it on RYM. Definitely the band's weakest effort to date. Most of the songs aren't *bad*, but most aren't good either. There are a few absolute duds in that batch though, namely "Creature Comfort" and "Electric Blue" (Regine, why have you forsaken us?)

Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now

Posted: Sat Aug 05, 2017 5:18 am
by M24
BleuPanda wrote:
Nassim wrote:I wouldn't count it out for making it to AM though, especially once the album list is extended : NME gave 5 stars, les Inrocks gave it a stellar review (as they just did for HAIM, and a pretty good review for Valerian, at least you can't say they follow the trend), Paste, the Independent and EW are pretty positive too so it should have a bunch of high placements and several low ones due to the benefit of being an album everyone has listened too.

Actually, now I'm wondering, does anyone know the lowest Metacritic score for an album featured in the top 3000? I knew off the top of my head I Get Wet would be low (it's a 64), but it's just bubbling. Scrolling through 2014, Alt-J's album has just a 70 (though Alt-J has a notable split between American critics and elsewhere). How many are below 70?
Lowest I could find was Lana Del Rey - Born to Die: 61

A few other I found with ratings below 70:

No Doubt - Rock Steady: 69
Air - 10,000 Hz Legend: 68
Justin Timberlake - Justified: 68
Kylie Minogue - Fever: 68
Aphex Twin - Drukqs: 66
The Killers - Hot Fuss: 66
Bloc Party - A Weekend in the City: 65
Kings of Leon - Only by the Night: 63

Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now

Posted: Sat Aug 05, 2017 5:20 am
by StevieFan13
Well, that's a shame. I like a lot of those albums (especially I Get Wet and Hot Fuss).

Re: Arcade Fire - Everything Now

Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2017 2:50 pm
by Huangal70
[quote="BleuPanda"]I decided to go through and look due to this conversation. There are 18 bands in the top 100 on this site who have their first album as their highest ranked:

Van Morrison

I'm not sure Blowin Your Mind is Van Morrison's critical darling.