The Suburbs

“What the hell, I don't know, but to me a home in the suburbs is a sort of isolated hell where nothing happens." -Jack Kerouac Man the disillusionment just dripped off this album. Its so thick and covers everything. You're not getting to any of the music unless you immerse yourself in it. Once again, at least for me, an album is handicapped by the pace of this project. My initial listen of this album found it to be milquetoast and pedestrian. Sounded fine, very well produced, but it never hit a second gear for me. Then a second listen later in the day was better received. I think if given time and more exposure to this album I would grow to enjoy it. Its got that indie rock persistence, a drip of water that will eventually cut a river through the mountain. This project however, is full of first draft reviews. Spend one day with an album, jot down your thoughts, move on to tomorrow. In that vein, The Suburbs gets 3/5 with an uncertain up or down future.

239. The Suburbs - Arcade Fire (2010) 10.19.26 Variety: 2 Adequacy: 4 Listenability: 3 Uniqueness: 2 Emotionality: 3 = 2.8 rounded up to a 3 "In my dream, I was almost there/ Then they pulled me aside and said, 'You're going nowhere'" "This is important. This MEANS something". This is the vibe I get from the Arcade Fire. At least what I've heard from them. I've liked several of the big singles I've heard, but have always been a bit disappointed when I've attempted album listens. It's been a good 15 years though, so who knows if my tastes have changed enough that they sit better with me. All bad the publicity around their front man and the band's self serious image ( couple of pre-controversy interviews I read, these guys seemed to have a VERY high opinion of themselves) have all rubbed me wrong, so they are starting off with a bit of a disadvantage. I don't really mind it that much when musicians have inflated egos or carry themselves like important artists so long as they can generally do at least the bare minimum to back that up. I say let them act as weird as they want ( within the bounds of good taste and the social contract) as long as they create some work that eases this long painful trek into nothingness that were all on. What irks me is when you have people acting like they are god's gift when they can't hold a candle to someone like Cyndi Lauper who I love but who creates fun, well crafted pop and who seems like a real person made good, or a possibly similarly important indie rock act like Wilco, who, in addition to making better music, seem like they have come at the fame and fortune thing with a bit of humbleness and self awareness. Arcade Fire sit more on the U2, Bruce Springsteen side of the equation where it appears that they think they are making some grand statement about humanity that you need to pay attention to, or that they are putting out some great truth that no one else has thought to realize before. U2 at least realized this was a creative dead end pretty quickly after people got fed up enough with it to hurt them critically, and decided to backtrack and create fun, meaningless pop. Springsteen seems to have doubled down and embraced the crown of meaningful rock that the greybeards of Rolling Stone magazine seem to have bestowed upon him. All that said, hopefully the music is way better than I remember and I can at least appreciate the craft. THE TRACKS "The Suburbs" - I remember being really impressed with this song. Enough so that I checked the whole album out. It still holds up very well, and hits pretty hard with the upsetting nostalgia, and the feeling that the past is gone and there's nothing to be done about it. And besides, was it a hollow and artificial feeling? The piano, Butler's emotional and almost fragile vocals, and the sing along chorus all add up to a pretty good attempt at getting a very specific feeling across in song form. That that's the goal, right? Taking your lifetime of experience and your talent and reaching out to make a connection with the people out there in the dark listening to your art. A+ stuff, but man is it a bummer. Maybe because it feels so true. It's worth mentioning that there was a pretty memorable music video for this that uses, what was at the time, some dystopian, pre-apocalyptic imagery of black masked pseudo-military thugs rounding up families, and scooping kids off the streets for what seems like an attempt to press gang them into service. How, what a difference 15 years makes huh? Depending on where you live and what your skin looks like you might be able to see this very thing happening in your very own neighborhood. I think at the time this was a pretty obvious metaphor for the harsh realities of growing up, and being forced to change whether you want to or not, but it works even better now. "Ready to Start" - Musically this is a bit more up tempo and exciting, but lyrically it's a lot clumsier and sophomoric in it's watered down edgy Holden Cauflieldesque rantings about how fake everyone and everything is. There's an attempt a vocal melody, but it's pretty weak, and it's carried by the electronic aspects and the driving rhythm. It tries way too hard to be epic, and ends with an abruptness that feels less like a bit of a dramatic flourish than they just ran out of ideas for a good finish. "Modern Man" - Some Tom Pettyish guitar work opens this one, and it feels like much more of a rocker. It's bouncy and catchy and very poppy, even with the existential dread that the lyrics seem to be digging into. Bonus points for hand clips ( even if you can barely hear them) and a commitment to the premise. "Rococo" - The band earns the baroque rock label here with almost sounds like a harpsichord, but also might be a strummed acoustic guitar that just sounds like it because of some processing and a buzzy synth behind it? This sounds like it might be a takedown of poseurs? A lot of questions here. It's good, but feels a bit listless and unconvinced of it's own sound. On the verge of being a highlight if it had just leaned more into the baroque aspects. It ends on some discordant noise which seems like a "nah, just kidding" way of hedging their bets and still being cool. I want to hear more unembarrassed E.L.O. style strings and over the top flair, and they seem to want to give it to me, but keep chickening out. ( edit: on a relisten it's definitely in the top tier compared to other stuff so gets a bump) "Empty Room" - I liked the switch up here to Régine Chassagne providing lead vocals as Butler is starting to feel a tiny bit whiny and feeble, but the song itself its featureless, and devoid of anything hooks or discernable features. It's very beige. "City with No Children" - This one opens with a very punchy pop rock sound, all claps ( or electronic equivalents) and cool, slightly fuzzy bass that would be right at home on some late 70s power pop tracks. More metaphors about growing up and the disillusionment that comes with it. I wasn't aware that this was a concept album, but maybe? This was a step in the right direction but ultimately felt like it never picked up steam after that opening bit and just stayed in a holding pattern. "Half Light I" - This works WAY better, and has a sort of sweet vibe to it that's gentle and full of longing. It seems like it wants to evoke something similar to R.E.M.'s "Nightswimming", so maybe the idea of the suburbs is more of a mixed bag than I've taken it for and it's being framed in a more ambiguous light. The strings do a lot of heavy lifting here, but Chassagne's vocals are very pretty as well. Presumably this would be the closer on side one of an old school LP. "Half Light II (No Celebration)" - There's Blondie-esque driving dance club beat on this one that's got big, epic sounding guitars and a galloping bass that makes it feel like it should be some sort of celebratory stadium anthem. This feels the closest the band gets to that giant arena sound that acts like U2 specialize in. It's fine, but feels very wishy washy. The suburbs suck. I miss the suburbs. The city's better. But not this city, it's too different. I'm fine with ambiguous or even contradictory messaging but this feels more less like an artistic choice to portray mixed emotions, and more like someone who will be eternally unsatisfied no matter the circumstances. "Suburban War" - This one seemed like a way more boring re-write of the first track's ideas welded to some even more boring music. It picks up near the end with the pounding, cinematic percussion, but it's too little too late, and I'm left feeling that instead of a bunch of variations on a single theme, I'm hearing just slightly different versions of the same thing over and over. "Month of May" - Now this is more like it. Some actual rock music. This sounds like a very Neil Young heard "Cactus" by the Pixies in a club one night and tried to re-create it from memory. Or more specifically, maybe the David Bowie cover of it. It was exciting and different and a blast compared to most everything else I've heard yet. A whole album of stuff like this would be much welcomed. ----- "Cactus" by Pixies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8w8NgvDf4aM ----- "Cactus" by David Bowie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFCDKYCevYs&list=RDqFCDKYCevYs&start_radio=1 "Wasted Hours" - After the reinvigoration of the last track, this one feels like an even bigger dip in energy that it maybe really is. There's a bouncy pace that seems tailor made for a slow drive around town, and maybe that's the intent. But the melancholy sad sackness intrudes on the lazy vibes and the song essentially comes to a screeching halt during the choruses. "Deep Blue" - I can't tell if this is a warning about AI ( points for relevance) or screen time ( ditto) or what but it's still very morose and humorless and it doesn't help that this might be the most instrumentally boring track yet. "We Used to Wait" - Instrumentally I'm more onboard with this one, with it's manic piano and big synths, but am I crazy or has the throughline gotten less and less specific an more hazy as we've went on. There have been plenty of concept albums that lose their way before landing the plane, and that's fine I guess. This song just feels like platitudes strung together with some cool keyboard effects. "Sprawl I (Flatland)" - Man, just called this "Flatland" and the next one "Mountains Beyond Mountains". I really don't need teh pretentious parentheticals. I love me some pretension in my rock and pop music, don't get me wrong. But only if the material can back it up. This was a shuffling woe is me piece of melodrama that felt entirely unearned and stagey in a way that just did not fit in with everything else. "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)" - Can we get a Régine Chassagne solo dance electro pop album? This was MUCH more my speed, and found myself thinking of LCD Soundsystem, Ladyhawke, and even Cyndi Lauper at various points during this ( all good associations) and came away thinking it might just be my favorite song on the album - the rest of which it sounds nothing much like. "The Suburbs (Continued)" - A string heavy coda that reprises the first track and coasts off it's greatness, but which was entirely unnecessary. HIGHLIGHTS - "The Suburbs" - "Rococo" - "Modern Man" - "Half Light I" - "Month of May" - "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)" MIDLIGHTS - "Ready to Start" - "City with No Children" - "Half Light II (No Celebration)" - "Suburban War" - "Wasted Hours" - "We Used to Wait" - "The Suburbs (Continued)" LOWLIGHTS - "Empty Room" - "Deep Blue" - "Sprawl I (Flatland)" FINAL THOUGHTS There's a general feeling about music from the 2000's onward that feels somehow more characterless than a lot of what came before, and this has come up more than a few times in discussions with my group, and I've mentioned it in relation to the idea that we seem to have halted creatively as a culture, with nothing much standing out music wise as being "of its time" so much as it's from every time and no time at the same.. uh, time. This isn't quite so bad and generic as a lot of that stuff feels, but there is enough of it that it's identifiable. If I listened to more of their albums though, maybe they would just end up being in the category of a very goof greatest hits band. There's nothing wrong with that. There was more good stuff on here than I remembered, but it was still full of so many miserabilist anthems that I'm not sure it puts them in the black with regards to my goodwill going forward. The few tracks I really liked though, along with the general professionalism on display was enough to round up though and make it a more positive experience than not. I guess I'm just expecting too much from a band that was so lauded, so when I didn't get at least a 4 star album out of the deal I'm even more disappointed by expectations that were maybe too large. The almost hour and four minute run time did not help. Three or four songs from the end I started to get impatient, and was finding it hard to differentiate even some of the better songs from each other. I can't say they won me over with this one, but there are two more albums on the list from them, so they'll get another chance. Or two. I'm fine going backwards into the discography a couple more times to see what gems there might be, but I don't think I'll be doing any independent study. Possible turn-Offs might include: - a relentless sense of hopelessness - an unself-aware over seriousness - sameyness in the mood and execution that leaves you with a sense of having listened to one really long song You Might enjoy this if you: - like well crafted, well produced indie arena rock - like hooks but are indifferent when it comes to memorable melodies - love the idea of a stage crowded with 10-15 too-earnest hipsters dressed in vests and stupid hats PLAYLIST ALTERATIONS' - Just the highlights please FURTHER LISTENING Precursors: - Parallel Lines by Blondie - On the Beach by Neil Young - Music for the Masses by Depeche Mode - Surf's Up by the Beach Boys - Wildflowers by Tom Petty - Heathen by David Bowie - The River by Bruce Springsteen Contemporaries: - Return to Cookie Mountain by TV On The Radio - The Hazards of Love by the Decemberists - Twin Cinema by the New Pornographers - The Fragile Army by The Polyphonic Spree Descendants: - High Violet by The National - Hospice by The Antlers - Lost in the Dream by The War on Drugs - Too Bright by Perfume Genius - I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware of It by The 1975 - Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night by Bleachers

(4/5) And I only give them this on the album's timing from this list. I like "Arcade Fire". I don't love them. This and "Neon Bible" I randomly stumbled into shortly after their releases and while I wasn't into modern rock at that time, their big, expansive sound tickled a lot of my music bones. (What a terrible analogy.. imma keep it anyway) Their moody, ennui-ridden lyrics and tone are appropriate to certain times and places. Today was appropriate. So, on the strength of the timing, they get the '4'. Otherwise, it is about 15 minutes too long and the back half suffers from some writers block. They just keep repeating the same tonal stuff over and over.. I forgave it today, but in a worse mood, they would have been knocked down a star.

Since Arcade Fire destroyed their legacy, I haven't listened to them. They were a big part of my formative high school years, and The Suburbs in particular was one of the first album releases that felt like an Event for me. I'd hear the title track on the radio on the way to school and fight to turn up the volume before my mom would change the station. "Sprawl II" was mindblowing to someone who'd never consciously listened to "Heart of Glass" yet. "Empty Room" felt like a connection between the pop punk I grew up with, and this new twitchy and anxious indie scene I was getting into. Yet in 2026, I looked at this album with dread. With all of the baggage, all of the in-jokes about the songs we didn't like, all of the self-importance, all of the ambiguous "us vs them" posturing, I just thought I'd moved past this record. I listened today for the first time in a long time, and I remembered most of the words. I remembered why I loved "Half Light II" and "Ready to Start". I remembered that Regine Chassagne is one of the best singers this genre had to offer, whenever she graced us with a lead performance. I remembered why I hated Rococo, and the vague and pretentious takedowns of "the kids" that stain the record. I remembered the lush orchestration clashing with the muddy guitars. It's all there! This is a perfect record for a beginner music adventurer, jaded teenager, or the nostalgic millennial looking back. If you can look past, well, everything, it's all there.

This better be the last arcade fire album on this list! They're ok but I think 3 albums (so far!!!!) on here is a bit excessive especially when I had one only 2 days ago give me a break

Album #326 Arcade Fire: The Suburbs One common factor that is shared by music that I tend to love is grandiosity. People always seem to complain about music that ‘takes itself too seriously’ or feels too large, but personally I love it when an album literally sounds like the entire world is at stake. Because of this, one of my favourite genres of music is the ‘Big Music’ sound from the 80s, which I believe Arcade Fire took a lot of inspiration from. Funeral is one of those albums where each song has you feeling as if it is the most important thing in the world at the time, and it quickly became one of my all-time favourites. The Suburbs maintains the pomp and circumstance of Funeral, but this time they keep you exhilarated for over an hour. It always impresses me when I struggle to think of a least favourite song on a double album, and truthfully that is the only time when I’ll approve of a double album; if there is obvious filler, then you should have just stuck to a single; but The Suburbs manages that feat. Whereas Funeral was the ultimate coming-of-age tale, The Suburbs feels like a more mature retelling of suburban life, with less talk of childhood wonder, and more adult realism with themes like politics, aging, and conformity. The biggest slander I see thrown at this album is that it is just another indie ‘stomp-clap-hey’ album, when in reality that whole idea was created based on the success of bands like Arcafe Fire, though they just kept the onomatopoeia and forgot the soul. Though this thing is pretty consistently excellent, I would say the baseline for a song here is like 8/10, whereas Funeral didn’t have a song drop below a 9/10, which is the only real way I can split the two. Still an unbelievable album, and potentially Arcade Fire’s most impressive, had their career ended here I think they would be spoken about amongst the greatest modern bands, unfortunately they weren’t quite able to keep up this form. Best Songs: Sprawl II, The Suburbs, Modern Man Worst Song: Sprawl I Score out of 10: 9.5

Well, it's been over a year and a half since I listened to Neon Bible, and I remember enjoying it while also recognizing it as a transitional record. It was clear that Arcade Fire were getting more ambitious with their album statements. That left me curious about how they followed it up. Boy, did they answer. The Suburbs doubles down on the ambitious scope that colored the band's previous work, this time offering a surprisingly nuanced portrayal of suburban life, problems and all, that harkens back to the roots rock and Americana of the mid-1970s. It's neither praise nor damnation of the titular neighborhoods, but rather an attempt to find that vaguely formed aspirational locus. Win and William Butler certainly took the time to reflect on their upbringing in suburban Texas to imbue that sentimental value in a narrative that purposely goes nowhere. Growing up and seeing friends stuck in the same routines, while the idyllic neighborhood slowly decays and technology advances. Yet the narrator still clings to the search for purpose and romance, even when they can't tell what the hell that's supposed to look like. But they're still going to try, and I think that drive is key to making the abstract work here. It helps that the narrative is paired with some genuinely pulse-pounding indie rock, where the compositions are lean and nervy, reflective of both youth and those who chase it. Songs like "Ready to Start", "Modern Man", "Rococo" establish the anthemic, accessible hooks early on, while the energy is ramped up for the fast-paced string swell of "Empty Room" and the straightforward rock of "Month of May". That said, the band knew how to dial it back for the ethereal ballad, "Half Light I", as Régine Chassagne's soft vocals highlighting conformity are accompanied by the whirling string arrangements and the kick drum beat nestled in the back of the mix. That's before the vibes switch to part II with that bubbling synth line that invokes a bit of 1980s new wave. But really, the best song was saved for towards the end with "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)", as the pulsing synthpop track about rebuking the theoretical melding of cities into one giant mass of urbanization. Truly one of the best songs the band has ever written. So yeah, in finding populism from exploring their roots, Arcade Fire found their soul in The Suburbs. Sadly, Arcade Fire hasn't seemed to recapture the spark of this record, as subsequent albums would prove to be mediocre at best. Regardless, at least for this moment, they nailed it.

Arcade fire like eg godt. Like Neon Bible albumet. Dette var åg ganske bra! likte introen, u know i love a good intro Modern man vise litt dfn uvanlige rytmegreiå derras, i like it. empty room!! Suburban war!!! We used to wait e litt for 2010 tumblr deep Beste sang: Suburban War

Stomp clap hey final boss, horrible

Awesome

Apparently I really do not like Arcade Fire, who knew

You can tell these guys are pretentious douche nozzles just from the insincerity of the whole album. This music sounds like it is made by people competing to see who is most obsessed with the smell of their own farts because their heads are so far up their own asses

Funeral was great. Neon Bible was okay. The Suburbs was awful. Such a disappointing trajectory from a band that started off so promising.

Banger

i liked this, it was a hallmark of millennial youth music without being too subject to the "stomp clap" fad that was popular in the late 2000's

I guess it's better than their first record, but by the 20 minute mark I was already incredibly bored and kinda annoyed by it.

Decent album, Arcade fire is just millennial alt-rock

very fire

This is great

Holy shit you guys read the novel that one guy wrote? Album was okay, nothing that really caught my attention. Couldn’t have told you if I was on track 3 or 10

Obligatory ‘Win Butler is a slimeball’. AF’s second best album. It’s very close to a 5 star for me, but it’s just a couple of meh tracks too long. Make it 13 tracks and then we’ll talk

Una garompa, todos los temas iguales

Starts with the title song which is a good one. The energy keep right up through Ready to Start, Rococo and Empty Room. Empty Room is a great tune! The songs flow together beautifully as well. Many post 2000 albums are basically just 3 minute song presentations back to back so they can check which songs will be a Spotify/iTunes hit, but this is a full album that works as a whole album. City with No Children is great, too. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Awesome

I dunno man, I think Arcade fire is pretty good but I just had a hard time focusing on this album, everything felt rather subdued and quiet even if I turned the volume up, the only song that I felt had any pussy was Sprawl II. I like the concept of the album though, suburbs and restlessness, I think its just also sort of a medium thing to sing about. Sydney gish did it better on Ed buys houses, it needs a bit more mania Already rated this one on lezzing out I think I gave it a 3/5 because they're french

mehhh this didn't hit for me the way that neon bible did. i kept relistening to try to grab onto something but i just kept getting kinda bored. title track good though

I feel like this album would grow on me if I listened to it more, though everything between the opening track and Sprawl II seemed to kind of blend together. I think I'll give it another go soon, but for now it's a high 3.

For me it starts super strong, then just gets a bit meh.

Fairly ok

It’s alright This genre of rock is so meandering I don’t like the whispy vocals they leave no impact, it feels like they are meant to blend in. I did like Sprawl II actually, it sounded different to everything else on the album. It definitely did the job of making me feel the urban drabness it frames its concept around. God I’m glad we moved away from this era

I have a new rating system on AOTY since I first reviewed this, so the change in rating doesn't reflect my feelings for the album! This is really a great example of what Indie Rock should be, and 2010 was such a great time. It still had the atmosphere and quality of the iconic 2000's Indie scene, but wasn't released after 2013 (I consider 2013 the death of consistently good quality Indie music, the bass is often overpowering and I find most of the music to drone and go straight through me!). I find the early tracks to be the best, with 'The Suburbs', 'Ready To Start' and 'Modern Man' being the album's primary highlights. Later on, there's the brilliant 'Deep Blue', but despite it's universal appreciation, I still didn't find myself loving 'Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)'! This is a very nostalgic album for many, both literally and sonically, though the sonic nostalgia resonates closer to me, with the heavily atmospheric sound.

The Suburbs - Soooo long and does nothing -1/5 Ready to Start - Sucks 1/5 Modern Man - Sucks just as bad 1/5 Rococo - Rocrapo -100/5 Empty Room - Sucks slight less, but still sucks 1/5 City With No Children - Nope 1/5 Half Light I - Does not need a sequel 1/5 Half Light II (No Celebration) - I'm not celebrating either 1/5 Suburban War - Barely listening now 1/5 Month of May - Worst yet -241\5 Wasted Hours - Story of my listening experience 1/5 Deep Blue - Sea? Like the bottom of the location where this album belongs? 1/5 We Used to Wait - Don't wait, please leave 1/5 Sprawl I (Flatland) - How is this still going? 1/5 Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) - Why? 1/5 The Suburbs (Continued) - Just end zzzzzzzz/5 Thoughts that come to mind: "Why is this first song so long? How many times do you need to play the same boring-ass shit before someone tells you that you should stop? Fire their producer into the sun." "I'm 6 songs in and I already hate this record with a burning (arcade) fire." "I like the transition between the first 2 tracks. Smooth. But sadly, it's like being in a room filled with cow manure, walking through a beautiful door, and into a room filled with dog shit." "This is a painful listen." "'Arcade Fire’s expansive third album turns suburban imagery, conflicted nostalgia and information-age disenchantment into orchestral sweep and piano-driven grandeur.' They spent more time writing that for themselves than they did writing anything for this record." "There's like 7 people in this band and the music sounds like 2 people could have wrote and recorded this in 2 hours, if we're being generous." "Tuning this out and just doing work." "Maybe I just don't get this because I didn't grow up in the suburbs? It's an artistic expression to be so boring? Where I grew up, you were taking your life and any possessions on you into your own hands every time you stepped outside." "Month of May is 4 minutes long and is almost all one chord the whole song. That only works for the Beastie Boys." "They are big fans of playing the same piano/keyboard note or chord over and over and over again for whole songs. I'm not." "The best time to delete this material was before you released it. The second best time is now." "They keep having sequel songs that have no musical connection to the song it's supposed to relate to. I think it's more song naming laziness than an attempt at continuity." "They should gather up all of the copies of this and bury them in the desert like they did with that Atari E.T. game." "One hour and 4 minutes too long."

My second favorite AF album (behind Funeral). It runs long but every song feels meaningful and purposeful.

Have listen to many times an indie classic

One of the best albums of all time

This album starts out so great and has such a melancholy soul for me. It loses some steam as it goes on - and it is long.

Incredible album, so happy for a chance to re-listen. It totally holds up. Very coherent theme and sound, yet with enough variation among the songs not for it to become boring. Going in I would have pegged "The Suburbs," "Month of May," and "Sprawl II" as my favorite songs, but I also really enjoyed "Deep Blue," "Suburban War," and the desolate "Sprawl I" on this listen. Easy 5 for me.

For some reason I kept thinking this album was from the 70s until I double checked- speaking of double checking, this band has 4.4 million regular listeners on Spotty and had radio plays judging by the reviews. We've forgotten what indie means if this is what qualifies something as indie. My rule of thumb has once again proven true- if an album is over an hour long it's bloated, it needs revising. I've listened front to back twice- by Suburban War it all starts to blend together. This album is like someone heard midwest emo / alternative and decided to repackage the genre in neater, radio friendly sounds for easier listening to a general audience. And that's not bad, but unfortunately it does mean it succumbs to the worse failing of just being kind of bland. Wasted Hours is a good sound, although it reeks of that repackaging by the artist selling it to bored teens stuck at school without any understanding of why a person may feel that way. City with out children in the best on the album

As good as I remember at the time. An hour long just holds it back, too many cooks in that band

Montreal?

Not necessarily my choice for average listening, but honestly, it's a good album. I was especially drawn by the word painting that is being done with the music! It's rather captivating, and adds nice nuances throughout to keep the music engaging.

Pleasant, occasionally grand but also sometimes bloodless echo of more sui generis talents – Bowie at his more anthemic, Springsteen at his less rootsy, earlier Arcade Fire. Sounds third-wavey – not third wave anything in particular, just "third wave." Today you'd suspect this was made by AI, though I'll acknowledge it didn't come across like "music you'll one day suspect was made by AI" at the time.

Never heard it before. First song is unappealing to me, including on a re-listen after I complete the album - the jaunty piano and drums don’t work for me. Rest of album chugs along at length, mostly unappealing to me. It’s kinda sweet that apparently many people who liked this as teens or young adults have major nostalgic attachment to it, but to me it’s ponderous, bloated. Exception was Empty Room, which struck me as okay, in an alt rock wall of sound way; I couldn’t hear the lyrics, I looked up a transcription, unimpressed. I’d say the album is Okay, but it’s not interesting enough to get 6/10, so I’ll give it 5/10.

Wasn’t a fan of this sound. Melancholy tech music

Refrito de 2010 en La Página Impar: Arcade Fire, adelanta el primer simple (con su correspondiente Lado B) de su próximo álbum. Hablamos de The Suburbs, que estaba originalmente programado para mayo pasado, pero que por ‘vaya-uno-a-saber-qué-quilombito’ debió ser pospuesto hasta agosto. Aún así, la banda liderada por los multiinstrumentistas hermanos Butler, lanzó The Suburbs/Month of may en 12 pulgadas, y ya se puede encargar el disco completo en el formato que más cómodo nos quede en la web oficial del grupo, que para este larga duración decidió dejar de lado la iglesia como estudio de grabación. El sonido de ambos temas, entre sí, es bastante diferente, incluso respecto de las dos placas predecesoras a The Suburbs. En este caso no hay orquestaciones demasiado ampulosas y pretenciosas, sino que por un lado Month of may suena más post punk que el post punk mismo, en un trajín vertiginoso y sin pausas; y el tema que dará nombre al álbum está encarado con una cadencia pop amena y optimista. Con este desconcierto como premisa, al menos desde el simple y su contracara, quedará escuchar el disco entero a partir de agosto. De todos modos, suene como suene, es un hype asegurado para la prensa como lo fueron sus dos primeros discos, independientemente del mérito hecho por parte del grupo para que suenen bien. -- No voy a volver a escuchar este disco.

This is the first album I've gotten on my list so far that I had no prior knowledge of at all and I really liked it! The instrumentation is really good and the album flows super well overall. Sounds like it could be very timeless as it was released a decade and a half ago and still sounds pretty current. Great album!

It's okay. For some reason Arcade Fire really doesn't do it for me, and I can't put my finger on why.

This made for good background music at work. Some more catchy songs and some "meh" ones. Not unpleasant at all.

largo, copado, continuo, buena vibra

Huele a adolescencia y que este scott pilgrim en la tele. Buen album

Bowie + U2 aburrido

El primer tema es espectacular, pero se me hizo muy monotono, no conecté.

It was ok. Like the first track. A little long of an album.

screams 2010's like've never heard before

It's inoffensive without reaching any great heights

It sets a very nice mood and sticks with it, but no songs really stick out. Will probably keep listening to Modern Man, but no other song stuck with me after listening

Boring, corny lyrics

Gostei muito!

Listening to this one today, I'd definitely forgotten how good it was; such is the effect of the diminishing returns of their subsequent albums. Shame. There was something really special here but it feels like a distant memory now. Their 2025 album is barely a shell of their noughties pomp. Although it definitely didn't help that a storm started gathering around Win with some really unpleasant allegations about his behaviour and deteriorating relationship with his wife Regine. No wonder the music also suffered. Just reading back on my review of Neon Bible, two things stand out; I called that LP and Funeral 'possibly their best two?' and also questioned the sequencing. On The Suburbs, interestingly, I feel they have absolutely nailed the sequencing, with a concept album that flows, hits its stride in all the right places and suits its runtime perfectly. On reflection, I actually enjoy this more than both of its predecessors. It succeeds both as a complete work, and with strong highlights such as Modern Man, City With No Children and the two-part closer, Sprawl. It feels more fully-realised than Funeral, while it's brighter and less menacing and dystopian than Neon Bible. Maybe it's because I was living in suburban America at the time it came out and have vivid happy memories of the time, but I feel it captures the spirit of its subject matter and paints a believable, if somewhat cynical picture. It's disappointing how hard and sharply they fell off after this but make no mistake, their first three albums deserved all the plaudits they were receiving and have held up to the test of time.

Arcade Fire is a band that I'm perpetually suggested by every musical algorithm, and should apparently like way more than I do, so I was happy to give a full album of theirs (particularly one that won the Grammy for Album of the Year) a spin. But after listening, I think this could just as easily have been titled Melancholy and the Infinite Boredom. I tip the hat a bit because I think that's the theme they're going for, as a think piece deconstructing life in suburban America. But the persistent sadness and overall long-windedness of it is just boorish. Nothing stands out and there's a perpetual background tinnitus that upsets my actual tinnitus. The second half got a bit more upbeat, at least, but most of the tracks, and the album as a whole, overstayed its welcome and lacked the drawing power to round this 3.5/5 up to a 4.

i would say its mid modern sounding, but a nice chill listen

The patriotic part of me says I should celebrate Canadian bands that had massive influence more. Meanwhile, it's not a bad album, but it isn't the first Canadian artists I'd recommend either.

I like some stuff and not other stuff. Overall I like it.

I enjoyed the high production values and big songs in this. It’s a complicated and layered album, with loads of great songs!

This album was amazing. Such a great variety of tracks. Love the vocals and musical style. Arcade fire is spoken very high of and I see why

Decent. I never liked Arcade Fire at the time but I particularly enjoyed the melodies on the first track. My tastes have changed and I have more time for them now. Will listen again.

The 1st track is a 3/5, I enjoyed listening to it as background noise while I complete my daily Microsoft Reward points, I'm planning on listening to this whole album as background noise. The 2nd track is a 3/5 enjoyed it as background noise, and being ready to start something with someone. The 3rd track is a 4/5, it's a good song about how somethings don't make sense until you're older, I might be completely misunderstanding the message, but the song somehow built on me, so I'm giving it a 4 which is the lowest a song has to get to be added to my main playlist. The 4th track is a 3/5, not a bad track, I enjoyed it as background music, but not going to add it to my main playlist. The 5th track is a 4/5, I don't fucking know, I just enjoyed it enough to add it to my main playlist. The 6th track is a 4/5, enjoyed the lyrics, the track in general, I feel like I'm going to end up giving this album a 4/5 with how many songs I'm adding to my main playlist. The 7th track is a 3/5, good song, not something I would go out of my way to listen to again. The 8th track is a 3/5, good song, wouldn't skip if I ended up listening to it in a different playlist, but not going to add it to my main playlist. The 9th track is a 3/5, good song, same as above, wouldn't skip, but wouldn't add to my main playlist either. The 10th track is a 3/5, good song, same as above, wouldn't skip, but wouldn't add to my main playlist either. The 11th track is a 3/5, good song, same as above, wouldn't skip, but wouldn't add to my main playlist either. The 12th track is a 3/5, good song, same as above, wouldn't skip, but wouldn't add to my main playlist either. The 13th track is a 3/5, good song, same as above, wouldn't skip, but wouldn't add to my main playlist either. The 14th track is a 4/5, I decided to add it to my main playlist, I don't fucking know anymore. The 15th track is a 3/5, good song, same as above, wouldn't skip, but wouldn't add to my main playlist either. The 16th track is a 3/5, not as good as the other songs, but a good final song. I would give this album a high 3/5, I added some songs to my main playlist, but it felt like I didn't add enough to give this a 4 or 5/5.

Not a big indi fan, so I wasn't impressed. Kind of (too) dreary and tiring. I would give it a 2.5.

i think _neon bible_ is my favorite of theirs, but this is still a great album

It was ok

Son la mejor banda del mundo pese a todo, y este disco es increible.

Even though 'Funeral' does this album a disservice by comparison, this record sits in the upper echelon of 00s indie rock. It does what other indie bands at the time did, but with more focus, offering great soundscapes and sounds that now feel reminiscent of the early 00s. 8/10 [KEEP]

While The Suburbs definitely deserves a place on this list, I’m not convinced it’s actually any good. The zeitgeist of mid-to-late 2000s alternative rock: meandering, well-played indie, but it’s just not for me. Ironically, for an album that rails against suburban sprawl and the loss of identity, it embraces both musically.

I'm not going to look up anything about his personal behavior before saying this, but my four stars should absolutely be interpreted as full-throated approval of everything Win Butler ever has done or ever will do.

Not sure what’s so “must listen” about this. Standardish alternative.

Always liked it

very 2010s hipster music. most of the album was just pretty boring to me. its funny though because i listened to Funeral in 2024 and i thought that album was really really good, so i might have to re-listen to that now lol...

Chill. Pa carretera, relax.

Garbage

6.5/10 - I thought the album started really strong. Suburbs, Ready to Start, Modern Man are all great, but the album is too long and the songs where they try and fuse or bend genres don’t really work for me.

Really good despite the long run time. There are a lot of indie rock classics but the deeper cuts are great too. 8/10

Another great album from our Canadian indie heroes. It's a good album with big sounds and engaging melodies. Maybe a tad monotone, which I am realising is a recurring criticism from me. But there are far worse offenders. Looking at a 4.

Liked the title song, good overall listen w/ no particular standouts

In the days of yore, composers wrote great symphonies. Then orchestras all over the world played them, and broadly speaking, they all sounded much the same. The Suburbs feels a little like that. It’s a collection of very good, very listenable songs, but the performance could be anyone. There’s no unique selling point. No quirky voice, no virtuoso guitar solos, no signature guitar sound, no unusual instrumentation. A bloke sings some songs. A woman sings some songs. Everyone involved is clearly a very accomplished musician. And yet it all feels strangely anonymous. Polished, tasteful, sanitised and just a bit vanilla. Not a bad album at all. In fact, probably a very good one. But nothing about it made me notice.

It has the minimum amount of features to not be completely boring but i would not listen to it on repeat. Its neither terrible nor great. Some songs like Sprawl II stick out for being better than the rest.

sounds like muse lol

Un des meilleurs group canadien

I realised that I was confusing this with 'Funeral' - but upon listening again this is a much more upbeat release than 'Funeral'. Great songwriting, great instrumentation and good melodies. A great album and going to make me relisten to some of their other stuff again today. (5/5)

Not quite as good as the first two albums. Seemed a bit more subtle with some of the rougher edges smoothed however it is still a very good record.

+1 for nostalgia factor

All songs sound the same, not but, but just all the same

I wonder why I always assumed this band was a Warped Tour pop punk band. They're way worse.

This is not the one that should have been on here.

loved

These guys really ran out of stuff to sing about, huh? Seems like they plumbed the 80s and got Neil Young and Billy Idol and Bruce Springsteen out of the deal and put their signature mid-2000s indie pop twist on it. Hey, maybe this album is on here because of its example of how the mid-2000s indie pop entered its death throes. There are beats of the old Arcade Fire in here, but it's half-done. The lyrics are sometimes eye-rollingly bad (what Neil Young could get away with in, say, Month of May sounds corny here), the inventiveness seems like it was given up prior to inventing anything, and the musical crescendos lack the emotional oomph that I'd expect from the diversion of the quasi wall of noise. Win's listless "Woo!"s sound half-assed. They sound bored, and the result is kind of boring. And at over an hour, too. Yech. And with the hater hat off, I still have to say it sounds pretty good. It's nothing new, and it is boring, but it does have something like the 80s rock energy to carry itself (though maybe not for an hour). Compared to the first two albums, I think it pales, but it's not bad. Just disappointing. Giving it a 2 because I'm mean but really it's just fine, even if ending with Sprawl II engenders a lot of goodwill.

3.5

Yes, Arcade Fire’s cultural cachet has plummeted in recent years. But this deserved its place on top of the world. I forgot how good this album is. It’s a more complete and cohesive album than Neon Bible, and feels a hell of a lot shorter than an hour. It takes me back to my high school days, which is ironic considering I didn’t first hear this until my 20’s. Top notch stuff.

Happened to listen to this on a bright sunny walk home, so yeah it hit really really well, very easy 5. Standouts are The Suburbs, Ready to Start, Empty Room, Suburban War, Month of May, We Used To Wait and Sprawl II, so like over half the album.

Has a strong start, then there is the middle of the album which is kind boring. Second to last track(Sprawl 2) is my favorite song on the album. This album I feel is too long and it could be cut down from 16 tracks to 10

"Funeral" was such an important album to me when it came out, and this album, six years later, just wasn't. Listening to it again all these years later, I know why. It's loosely held together by the "suburbs" concept, but it's kind of muddled - are we in the suburbs or have we escaped them? And there's some kind of war, pitting us against our suburban neighbors? "Funeral" had such a clear point of view. It tackled life and death, the meaning of existence, and fears of growing up. I feel like Arcade Fire meant for this album to have that sort of deep meaning and it just didn't click with me. The first 3 songs are great, and then it all falls apart.