Neon Bible

7.5/10

1.9

Love this album but prefer The Suburbs

this was a fun album, and arcade fire’s first album was pretty awesome, but i’m not sure this was better, just more polished

pre one direction o david bowie chafa

It’s a beautiful album. I love Arcade Fire. My favorite is “My Body is a Cage”.

Utterly forgettable. I know I was listening to the album as I ran errands today. I swear I wasn't ignoring it. Nothing really stands out. How do I rate an album that when I literally just listened to it, I can't remember much about it? Wait... They waited until the end of the album to have back to back bangers?

it has taken me 3 arcade fire albums from this generator to realise that win butler sounds like gord downie if he was french and loved the canadiens

Love no skips

Pretty boring. Some good moments that built to something but a lot of the times the climaxes did not do it for me.

The instrumentals on this album are mainly used to fill in the sound instead of driving the songs forward. This combined with the weak vocals make the album an absolute slog to get through.

Out of the 3 Arcade Fire albums I’ve listen to so far this one is the worst, and it actually makes me mad. I know that with 1001 albums on this list sone of them will be bad, but it seems like filler like this makes up half the list.

i didnt really hear anything special

Loses some sparkle as it ages

again, pretty unremarkable, but this had a slight tint of artistic merit that makes it sound more bearable.

Always pretended to hate arcade fire. Not a bad album. Some good vibes, but actually not a huge fan. Just sounded a bit bland at points. Some good messages though!

Would definitely recommend and listen to again myself as it was not a chore to get through and the songs were really interesting.

A strange but enjoyable listen for me. I don’t typically like this type of music, but I found myself intrigued by a lot of the songs, with the highlight for me being Intervention

Eh

Existentialism never sounded so hopeful. Don't let the awkward first track put you off; the rest is non-stop energy. 8.5 / 10 Best track/s: No Cars Go, Intervention, Ocean of Noise

Meh. 2/5

The songs were a bit too slow for me at first and then I really started enjoying when Intervention played. I also really like Black Wave/Bad Vibrations, The Well and the Lighthouse, No Cars Go and My Body is a Cage. Definitely a good first recommendation I'm excited to listen to more.

Musically interesting, but more one note than I'd like. Both too preachery and shallow, as well as with some interesting music to go with.

9/10 je connaissais pas mais je suis mtn fan

oh hell yeah one of my favorites ever, always a wonderful listen

I was already very familiar with Arcade Fire, this album came out when I was a teenager and was essential listening for an indie rock loving Canadian like myself. Likely played the crap out of this on my iPod. Amazing to revisit the album again beyond the singles. Very grand and beautiful sounding, I love the variation of instruments used, like the orchestra and the organ. Lyrically, I still think it's poignant. Favourite songs: Intervention, Windowsill, No Cars Go

Some really great songs, songwriting, and instrumentation. I hadn’t listened to it in years, and was pleased to see the peaks are still there: Black Mirror, Keep the Car Running, Intervention, (Antichrist superstar blues), are all fantastic! Not quite as good as their debut, as it has its pretty average parts too.

The second fulll album by Arcade Fire that I have listened to through this project and again found it enjoyable and easy to listen to.

Amazing how much I used to love this album. I think if you replaced Win Butler in this you would be on for a 5. And that now holds true for most, but definitely not all, Arcade Fire albums.

jo

Baroque pop kan vara ett av de bästa namnen på en genre och här har vi ett genomgående härligt och olycksbådande exempel.

Vill lyssna igen, men genomgående hög kvalitet och spännande låtar!

Lite besviken på detta, med The Suburbs som enda tidigare Arcade Fire-referens. Lite lågenergiskt men samtidigt inte så chill att lyssna på?

Was not over impressed with this album , very formulaic rock music with noth8ng else to offer apart from th slightly annoying vocals

Great album. I downloaded a dodgy copy when it first came out that had Intervention as the first track, which I still maintain is the correct place for it, but the album holds up. Big songs, delicate songs, great production. First five star.

It was… pretty solid, though I can’t deny it has a kind of youthful, slightly “over-the-top” intensity to it—big gestures, dramatic arrangements, and that church-like atmosphere that feels like it’s trying to shout its fear and frustration into the open. It’s not the sort of album I would normally choose for comfort listening, but it’s hard to ignore the urgency it carries. By the end, it reminded me of something simple: it’s easy to drift into numbness at any age, and change often starts with noticing what feels off. Not sure how often I’ll return to it, but I can see why it lands for people. It turns unease into a public declaration.

Bra album, några låtar bättre än andra men så är det väl alltid! Ganska hård indierock och nice att lyssna på men inte helt min musik smak. Nice lyrics dock av det jag fokuserade på

In my head I’d written off Neon Bible as being a dud in between Funeral and The Suburbs, so I never listened to it again since it came out. What a fool I was, this album is great! It still doesn’t hit the highs of the albums either side of it, but it’s a solid Arcade Fire record and one I’m glad I returned to.

Along with the (even better) Killers, this introduced the ol' Springsteen sound to 2000s indie kids. As soon as "Intervention" starts, you realise what was missing in pop music all along was a good church organ.

Even though I liked some of the arrangements, I just don't like this genre, whatever it is. I don't know if Arcade Fire were the first to shout those annoying 'heys' in bridges—the ones that haunt every indie pop song from that decade until recently—but they are insufferable. I dig the organ, though.

Tremendamente malo. Ni me voy a molestar en detallar todo lo que no me gustó.

Didn’t like it then, don’t like it now. There’s parts that work but it didn’t age well.

Nothing really stood out to me. I feel like a lot of the songs sounded similar.

I liked this one a lot more than I expected to!

Not really my vibe

This was a decent album, but fell off pretty hard after some early bangers and overall didn't end up feeling all that memorable for me.

This is a very bland, milquetoast indie rock album. There's not much to say here, it's just an over hyped, boring slog with no real substance whatsoever. All the critics hear the violins and French interjections in the lyrics and wet themselves trying to put this bland hipster drivel on a pedestal as one of the greatest records of the 2000s, but it's just a bunch of boring, vacuous drivel with no real substance to it. Get outta here with this crap!

previously only listened to my body is a cage on this album - so far do not like the first song "black mirror"- It is a bit too alternative for me. - this album is sooo boring I actually cannot. - its giving men with man buns and beards that open a burger shop.

mmm not for me.

preachy, self-important, and unnecessarily complicated; kind of like if my ex girlfriend was an album.

It was kinda dull but I quite liked it.

Not always amazing, but features enough beautiful vocal performances and gorgeous production to make the whole thing engaging. Not as consistent as Funeral, I’d say, but I do think it has higher highs.

Good for the genre, definitley not my go-to though. The song neon bible and my body is a cage are best-- would be open to listening to more albums by them

Zzzzz

This really is not for me. Sounds like a band that critics love and expect you to praise, but I am not feeling this.

I was 20 when this one came out and liked it a lot then. Haven’t sat and listened to it since then though, and it’s not very good. It’s too serious for its own good, many of the tracks feel incomplete despite the production shoving in everything it can, and Win is kind of a grating vocalist. Meh.

Sounds tired and largely uninspired after Funeral, going back to the same playbook and coming up with a cheap knockoff

It was enjoyable, bur nothing too special

I can name a hundred better records…weird choice to be on the list.

I already rated this shit. Awful garbage. Where's the zero star option?

I'm reluctant to give this a good rating. I think I liked it alright at the time but I felt some second hand embarrassment relistening to it in 2025. In retrospect, at times, these songs might be the most juvenile songs I've ever heard. And not in the fun way. I can kinda see how we as a society ended up with they hey ho stomp clap music a few years later and I do NOT look back at that fondly.

I liked a lot of the base elements, but combining them just didn't work for me. Not a fan of the folk-kinda psychadelic combination. Was a bit too edgy for me.

Bored me when i was young and i Feel similar now. Well produced. Motivated to relisten on my nice earbuds. Great background music to do chores to. His voice and often the lyrics and the music too, are too melancholy to me. Although there’s a variety of sounds and speeds throughout most tracks develop in an expected way and thrive off repeated rhythms. I like the time capsule that is the lyrics. But i don’t connect with many.

I love this album

Big sound. Deep feels. Bells and drums like thunder. Lost and yearning and cynical and full of unstoppable religion. This holds up all this time on, and I'm glad I'm not that kid grasping and grappling for meaning that I was when I first heard this.

What an album, it was consistently great all the way through.

My body is a cage great end. high 4 low 5 for me

neon bible - so so good! intervention - pov im a king and i hate my job. ocean of noise - time will work it all out fr! (fingers crossed). I love this, I've added so much of to my daily playlists and even 'windowsill' to my 'how I'm currently feeling playlist'. this album has improved significantly the further through it i get. I think I found one of my new fav artists icl! listening to their funerals album now! also I can't wait for this to give me a huge singer that I've yet to explore like bruce Springsteen or smth!

Fantastic from start to finish

I never really know what to do with bands that have bad people in them. When I already like the band, I tend to be like "aw man :(" and then forget about it in like a month, but when it's a band I've never heard before, I feel like I shouldn't bother listening to them. I kind of have to listen to these guys because I got them on the list, though, so I just went into it with the well horribly poisoned. That being said, the sexual assault stuff could've never happened and I'd still find this album pretty boring. This album sounds very dated, and not in a good way like 80s Pop or 60s Psych Rock. I feel like the singer doesn't know how to convey emotion through music so he makes the music sound massive to get you to feel something. It almost works in some parts, especially in the opener, but I also feel like it only works because it's the opener in that case. For all that, there were a few okay songs. The one with the French women was fun until the singer opened his mouth and I sort of liked the instrumentation on No Cars Go. It's not quite a 1 star album, but it's almost there.

Love love love

Really fun and different indie rock album, lot of cool instrumentals and vibe.

Really enjoyed it. Antichrist blues and intervention were some favs

I don't think I've ever listened to this album. I didn't love Funeral like everyone else did, so I didn't feel the need to check any more of their stuff out. I'm curious to see if I recognize any of these songs though, because these guys were everywhere for a while. Sounds pretty similar to Funeral. I kind of liked "Intervention." I'd give this 2.5, rounding up because I'm feeling generous. I just don't love these guys like a lot of my friends do. Not sure why.

Hipster Bruce Springsteen goes to church.

Almost thought some of this was ok

Irgendwie hatte ich Arcade Fire anders in Erinnerung

Great moments, wonder what happened to the band post Reflektor to make such a deep dive into mediocrity

I didn't see it then, but I kind of see it now.

To me this album is a lesson in overproduction - everything is just too much. Do we really need the Budapest film orchestra and military men's choir for a so-called "indie album"? It's also a lesson in overambition: Does the material justify this ridiculous orchestration? By trying so hard, it only accentuates the limitations of the material. I may have liked this album better if it didn't try to sound so much grander than it actually is. The songs would have worked better as lean, indie-scale compositions instead of masquerading as a sweeping concept opera. This album is lacking in goodness, but not in grandiosity. Wrong ratio. Let the vision emerge through the work: don’t wear it on your sleeve. As if to highlight the point, autoplay moved to Elliott Smith's "Between the Bars" when the album ended. A hushed, bare voice backed with a single guitar, yet it carries more emotional weight than all the orchestras and choirs that preceded it. This is what material-first sounds like.

Arcade Fire was on my listen to more thoroughly list anyway, so if this is regarded as one of their better albums it's a good recommendation I think.

This album feels like it's almost good. I liked elements of it like the Christian language and metaphors as well as the piano parts but overall didn't love the album. It might grow on me if I listened to it again.

The singer reminded me of David Byrne. I liked a couple of tracks. Ocean of Noise and The Antichrist Television.

I didn’t dislike it but was a bit inoffensive; milquetoast generic.

Still solid, I think I prefer Funeral or Suburbs but I like this a lot. Favorite tracks: Intervention, Windowsill.

A solid album with a not-insignificant amount of nostalgia for me. Doesn't hit the highs of Funeral (my favorite/most nostalgic Arcade Fire album), but certainly has some great tunes.

Solid, creative outing if at times it fails to reach the heights that the production imagines for it

kom knappt igenom första låten, så otroligt tråkig

Didn't like it

I already had these guys and wasn't impressed that much. But this ones is better so far after 1 listen. Might go for 3 stars. Honestly this might be first modern indie album I might even want to REVISIT!? "Intervention" stuck out to me and maybe couple of other tracks

No. 51 Never listened to a full Arcade Fire album before. I quite liked this. Good energy and vibe troughout the album.

It feels like boring, whiny and dull. It was hard to listen. Better to read the actual Bible. I liked Black Mirror. It was such a cheat code name, that's not fair. 2/5 —————————————— Liked: — Black Mirror

Sounds like they just stole Bruce Springsteins music

5/10. This was fine. Clear Springsteen influences. It was fine.

This was this was interesting. It was OK. Some people say it’s boring which I’m not sure I fully agree with, but I do experience some sort of secondhand embarrassment listening to this type of music, but I feel that there’s a lot of good ideas and good moments on this album, even though it did feel start very similar throughout the runtime there’s definitely songs that were standouts and that made me cringe bit and not sure if I would come back to it. I’d probably listen to other Arcade Fire albums before listening to this again, but I didn’t hate it.

not for me

8/10 Favorite: Black Mirror

Boring

7/10 ima dobrih pesama, al ne rade me Neon Bible je top

Maruska would approve, kinda musical-ish Enjoyed it

Muzikální-ahh, jako nekomu se to adi libi 🙄

A couple songs make this more of a 4 - call it a 3.5. But I still just can’t quite get into arcade fire - there’s something about them I find pretentious/boring. Maybe I just require another listen. Til then!

it takes me a while to really pay attention to lyrics in music but whoa some of these lines just really jumped out, can't wait to relisten and relisten my body is a cage is crazy where have you been all my life

Passion and indie zeal

It was lowkey a little generic, i didnt think it was that cool. It felt like a lot of music ive heard before. Kind of like coldplay. They were talented but i didnt think it was anything special. 3.1/5

I’ve tried listening to them a few times over many years but I just don’t get what the big deal is. I’m Canadian so I feel that I can say that this music kind of sits in a certain Canadian style that has an underwhelming vibe. They’re a competent band playing songs that don’t seem to really go anywhere and the vocals aren’t doing too much either. I get the feeling that this is way too hip for its own good. I’m generally more open-minded than most when it comes to the enjoyment of music so it is a bit disconcerting to not be able to like this so I’m giving this a second spin… …and although I was able to find a couple of things I liked it’s still mostly not doing much for me. Damn I could have spent my time more wisely by listening to some other album I enjoy but oh well, win some, lose some.

millenial core

Saved by the last few songs

Best Track - "My Body Is A Cage"

I was initially surprised to see this on the list. We reviewed Funeral, Arcade Fire's debut album a couple months ago. That album in my mind is one of the quintessential indie albums of the early 20's. When I remember Neon Bible coming out, I didn't like it nearly as much as Funeral, but listening to his now I have no idea why I thought that. This album has all the theatrical intensity that Arcade Fire were known for with a little more focus in each song, a bit more upbeat, and absolutely huge crescendos, booming vocals and layered string arrangements. I know at some point in their career, Arcade Fire take a turn toward more rave / dancehall modern disco stuff(which I don't like nearly as much), but Neon Bible is still a perfect example of what made them stand out as a band and put them on the radar of music lover all over the world. Another album which im sure nostalgia plays some part in my bias, but I really enjoyed listening to this album as much as some of the other 5 stars on this list.

My third Arcade Fire album from the generator. I think this is the album of theirs that I was most familiar with going into this project. As with the Suburbs and Funeral, this is perfectly enjoyable indie rock that I’m just not too fussed about. It’s weird because I really feel like I’m supposed to like Arcade Fire because I’m generally a fan of indie rock and I don’t dislike it, but I don’t exactly like it either.

Have listened before and would listen again Faves: No cars go Keep the car running Intervention Black wave/bad vibrations My body is a cage

I hate this specific subgenre of indie music.

This album still lives in St Andrew’s. Upstairs at the Whey Pat I think. Somewhere on that street. Coffee with Cat

Seems quaint we used to be scared of evangelists. Now they seem small beer compared to the absolute shitshow the worlds become. Cracking tunes.

I understand why people compare this band to U2. They both have no soul.

i mean i really like it like my body is a cage is literally a dyphoria anthem and im enby 4/5

Its good though I remember liking it much more when it first came out so a nostalgia star!

Eh

Yeah. It was ok. 🤷‍♀️

Horrible

I really really liked this this. Window sill hit the soul

Definitely one of the best indie rock albums I have heard to date. Production is super indie, but that adds to the overall charm. I don't know anything about this band, so I'm sure my rating is going to be viewed as naive but I honestly vibed with every single song. The Well and The Lighthouse, Black Mirror, and My Body is A Cage were standouts.

I think I audibly sighed when I finished rating yesterday's album and saw that I'd be listening to another Arcade Fire LP just a few weeks after getting Funeral. I was fully prepared to get a second heaping dose of pretentious indie rock from the guys who thought they were being clever by clowning on Daft Punk at Coachella 2014. However, in the weirdest twist of fate, Neon Bible ended up actually being pretty good! There are definitely some duds here & there and it's a bit more "stomp clap hey" than I would like at points, but there's some genuinely good music here and it's a lot more approachable than I expected it to be – more than half the songs ended up being highlights on my first listen. Outside my enjoyment of the songs individually, I also just feel like this LP paints a better picture than the previous one. The title, lyric themes, instrumental choices and recording location work in complete harmony together to create a one-of-a-kind album that I can definitely see myself coming back to (even if this style isn't usually my cup of tea). Hopefully The Suburbs ends up being just as good! Highlights: Keep the Car Running, Intervention, Bad Vibrations, Ocean of Noise, The Well and the Lighthouse, (Antichrist Television Blues), No Cars Go, My Body Is a Cage

Really grew on me.

Really cool album, a solid find! Excited to hear more of their other stuff on this list. Easy 4 stars

Arcade Fire has always been a band whose releases felt like events—cathedral-sized, emotionally panoramic records you don’t just listen to, you *live in*. Neon Bible carries that same gravitational pull. It trades some of Funeral’s raw urgency for a darker, more operatic sweep, but the effect is just as encompassing. The arrangements feel engineered to swallow you whole—organ, strings, choirs, the whole shebang—yet nothing feels bloated. It’s a meticulously built world, and once you’re inside it, the album just doesn’t let you go. Top-to-bottom, it’s phenomenal.

Did not understand the arcade fire hype then and do not understand it now.

Never heard this album or artist before. Enjoyed it!

Gonna skip this one because the lead singer is a creepo

Jedan od bendova za koji te ljuti da su stekli slavu, užasan album, užasan!! 1/5, 1/10

I love these hipster bastards, but I like their other albums better. 3.5

Very bland, all the songs basically sounded the same. Avoided the one-star with ‘No Cars Go’ as the penultimate track

Some great tunes (Keep The Car Running, No Cars Go) but very ponderous and overly earnest without saying anything. Lacks the charm of Funeral and the song craft of Suburbs. And Win Butler, man...

Big fan of Arcade Fire and never listened to this from start to finish - just each song at different times. I don't know why I keep seeing 'boring' or 'pretentious' with some reviews. To each their own, but I think this is excellent.

6 Feel nothing listening to this

It’s really such a mixed bag

Ah, Neon Bible, my final Arcade Fire album to review (and my final album of 2007), and also my favorite album by Arcade Fire. Before starting this project, I hadn’t listened to an Arcade Fire album from start to finish in a really long time. It’s not because I stopped liking them, but they had a string of albums that weren’t really my style, and other bands that I liked were putting out albums that I loved, so they just moved to the back burner for me. I’ve been holding off on listening to this album, since I knew it was coming up at some point for me to review, and now that it’s finally here, I’m really excited to fire it up today. After listening to Neon Bible today, it might still be my favorite album, but I don’t know that I’d consider it Arcade Fire’s best album (I think that honor belongs to The Suburbs). Heading into this project, I thought Funeral and Neon Bible would undoubtedly get five stars from me, and that The Suburbs would probably get four stars. Now that all three of these albums are done and dusted for me, the reverse has actually come true. I really like Neon Bible’s darker sound, and the complex arrangements that make up these songs, but I think the themes of The Suburbs resonate with me more at this point in my life that Neon Bible. I do like the lyrics and themes of this album, but it’s just tough for me to get into musically. Neon Bible hits an incredible high point on its second song, “Keep the Car Running,” but it never really gets back to that emotional high until “No Cars Go.” It comes close on “Intervention” and “The Well and the Lighthouse,” but Neon Bible just doesn’t resonate as much with me as it goes on. I think it’s a beautiful album to listen to, but there’s just too big of a valley between the two peaks for my tastes. Some notes on the individual songs: “Black Mirror” is such an interesting lead-off track in my opinion, but I think a lot of that is because I know “Keep the Car Running” (my favorite Arcade Fire song) is next. I like the darker sound of this song though, and it really sets the tone for the album, in terms of the sounds and themes that the album is going to explore. The orchestral strings that kick in about halfway through were really great, and they sweep the song along to its conclusion. “Keep the Car Running” is my favorite song on this album, and my favorite Arcade Fire song. I love those strings in the intro, and when that guitar (banjo? Mandolin?) plucking starts, it’s pure bliss to my ears. Then the drums kick in, and that rhythm is so simple, but so effective because of how catchy and pulsing it is. The entire song just has an incredibly rich sound, and I love the lyrics and the vocals. There’s always some new, subtle thing to hear as the song goes on, and it's just an absolutely beautiful song from start to finish. I love that pipe organ on “Intervention.” The Percussion that kicks in a little short of halfway through is great too. But I love how the pipe organ fades to the back a bit for a while, allowing the strings and percussion to really drive the sound. “The Well and The Lighthouse” is really excellent. The rhythm of the guitar is great, and I love the alternating vocals from Win and Régine. I’m not quite sure what instruments are being used, but I love whatever kicks in during that first part of the chorus each time. I’m guessing it’s a keyboard or synth, but regardless, it sounds great. It’s bright, yet it doesn’t take away from the darker sound of the album. “No Cars Go” is my second favorite song on Neon Bible. It’s weird how the second and second to last songs on the album are my two favorites. To me, they’re the emotional high points of the album, so maybe it’s intentional that they bookend Neon Bible in a way. Like “Keep the Car Running,” the drumming here is simple, but outstanding too. The vocals and lyrics are great, and I love the crescendos that this song builds to. It’s an interesting choice structurally to have that instrumental section just before the halfway mark, but it works really well, especially with the other instrumental section just after the halfway mark. The outro is really great here too. Neon Bible isn’t perfect, but it’s a really beautiful album, and it showcases all that Arcade Fire was doing during the commercial peak of their career. The darker tones on this album are done really well, and while the lyrical themes may not be my favorite, they’re executed well. Arcade Fire was one of my favorite indie rock bands from this era, and it was really great to visit this album again.

I preferred the more upbeat songs. The main male vocalist was kinda whiney sometimes.

Enjoyable enough for two plays, but not remarkable enough for five stars.

The first two songs have kind of a revival flavor to them. Which makes sense given that their recording space used to be a church. Rousing and kind of inspirational, Neon Bible gets the blood pumping. You could definitely imagine a congregation swaying and clapping along in ecstatic religious fervor. Their live shows carry on that conceit - the band is a pretty animated tour-de-force on the stage and frontman Win Butler is a tall and imposing yet genial preacher analogue. I'm not a huge fan, but I can see why they got the cred. This record is definitely listenable, but just a bit too extra for my taste.

Arcade fire? Really? Actually, I hadn’t listened to any of the songs from this album, but when I heard the name, I thought “oh, I like them.” I’m digging this first track already. Oddly enough, if quizzed I probably couldn’t name a single song of theirs.

what kind of sick joke is it to listen to two arcade fire joints in one week? cmon dude

A rare album that I know very well! This rating will def just be stream of conscious while I listen and reminisce. Black Mirror first few notes and I'm instantly back in junior year of college in a shitty cold apartment with friends getting high as hell. Keep the Car Running, Neon Bible. both great. Intervention.. man. I can feel that organ in my whole body. Love love this song. I think Arcade Fire can be kinda cringe when you listen to the lyrics closely but honestly that's just not how I listen to music anymore. I'm an instrumentation + beat + sing along chorus kinda gal, and AF will always hit that for me. WORKING FOR THE CHURCH WHILE YOUR FAMILY DIES Black Wave, always appreciate a Regine song. STOP NOW BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE Ugh Ocean of Noise.. so spooky. This is hitting. Sliding back into a great running song - The Well and the Lighthouse. Regine! in the well! I was probably trying to play this one at house dance parties. All good and then you hit that slow part! oh! RE SUR RECTED LIVIN IN THE LIGHT HOUSE. THE LIONS AND THE LAMBS AINT SLEEEEPIN YET Around this time I realized that Win can sound a lot like Bruce Springsteen, and (Antichrist Television Blues) is definitely the Bruce song. I briefly tried getting my dad into AF after making that realization. Don't wanna work in a building downtown! Windowsill.. love the long slow build HEY! No cars go. Is this the birth of the Hey! ho! movement? LITTLE BABIES...! LETS GO! I have a hard time explaining how My Body is a Cage makes me feel. It is extremely visceral. that freaking organ. when the choir comes in at 1:20.. chills. and then the big drop at 2:10 OMG. I could cry. I'm sure this song has made me cry. I feel like I could leave my body a little bit. For years listening to this song made me feel high instantly. religious! transcendent! It's impossible for me to rate this fairly. It's just too emotional and nostalgic for me. I feel too moved to not give this a perfect score. 4.7/5

I liked it better than I thought I would at first listen. I've listened to it a second time. Still have to decide what my favourite song is tho. nice album for a road trip? (not cause of all the car songs) if I had to shout out my favourite songs, those would be: - Intervention - My Body is a Cage

Mit dem Album der Band hatte ich mich noch nicht beschäftigt. Gefällt mir jetzt auf Anhieb sogar noch besser als "The Suburbs". Bei der Gelegenheit gebe ich mir gleich auch nochmal "Funeral". Wobei die hier wahrscheinlich ohnehin noch kommt.

I honestly remembered liking Arcade Fire better in the other album we listened to. It was fine, but not my favorite.

This is a pretty big step up from their debut album. Their sound is more fleshed out and every song is great. This sounds like music I'd put on in my spare time. Maybe a couple songs here can find their way into my personal playlist. Who knows!? Arcade Fire is pretty good.

I guess it's fine, I'm just finding more and more that I'm really not into indie rock. It's kind of bland and dreary, wouldn't say it's bad but it's like it's from an uninspired teen drama.l soundtrack.

Nah not for me. Woke indie shit 0/10

This album is a bit of a Quality Street situation for me. It’s all relatively decent and oh aren’t we glad to be tucking into yet another nice chocolate, but nothing in the box is going to rock my world. But there’s a good amount of variety in there and I wouldn’t be against coming back for more another time.

I find this a tad mono and at times also dull. I can hear a lot of depth here with the overuse of instruments to make a darker and more atmospheric environment.  Again more often overpowered by the lyrical and guitar drone. I cant see me wanting to invest in this.

Every now and then a band comes along that seems to do something a bit differently and gives you something you've not quite heard before. Arcade fire ticks that box for me. Such an expansive sound and so much meaning squeezed out of every track. In fact, my only criticism is that sometimes they maybe try too hard and come across as a bit "holier than thou". Arcade fire came along at prime music discovery age for me. They were played a lot in my uni digs and I saw them live at that time, so there are some added nostalgia marks. This isn't their best album but still a goodun with a couple of my favourite tracks.

fiiine

It was ok. A bit whiny

One of my favorite albums of 2007-2008. Really interesting instrumentation with the hurdy-gurdy, violins, organs etc. sounds great in folk americana rock. My take has always been that they took the sounds of U2 and Springsteen and did it better with this album.

This isn't my favorite arcade fire album. However their influence on early 00's indie music can't be denied. This is a really strong album. 4/5

Kinda generic to me? Feels like they haven't found a distinct voice yet. I think later stuff I enjoy more.

I originally wanted to give this a 3--after a first listen, I didn't really feel attached. But it continues to get deeper after multiple listens, and now I'm hooked. "Ocean of Noise" spoke to me and now I can't go back.

Muddy and to self serious

Every song feels so incomplete. They pick one riff or vibe and stick with it for a couple minutes. There are no build-ups or dynamic changes or bridges to speak off here.

Pretty good concept album with good themes

Not my favorite album of theirs but still really good. They have a distinct sound.

Surprised as I quite liked some songs on here, never heard anything that I’m aware of before, fav track - “ keep the car running”

My favorite from Arcade Fire. Solid album front to back

Mid.

Really bummed. I like most of their stuff but this doesn't totally work for me. Best Song: No Car Go Rating: 5.5/10 Stars: 3

Boring

Not to my taste

A tough one. This is my personal favorite of the Arcade Fire albums I've heard but it's by no means perfect. I had to break it down song by song: Amazing - Black Mirror, Neon Bible, Ocean of Noise, My Body Is a Cage Good - Intervention, Bad Vibrations, The Well and the Lighthouse Meh - Keep the Car Running, Black Wave, (Antichrist Television Blues), Windowsill Shit - No Cars Go On one hand Neon Bible absolutely nails the bookends with Black Mirror and My Body Is a Cage which gives it a leg up, but between those 4.5 songs are "good" and above, and 4.5 songs are "meh" and below. All around it is an inconsistent album with high highs and some lows, but at the end of the day I keep coming back. 3.5/5 -> 4/5

This album sounded so big... but also so dark. Like it was leaden. There's a differently mixed, maybe arranged version of this album somewhere that I would probably find great.

not for me

3.5

Enjoyable enough on a nothing really stood out kind of way

Not bad for a mainstream indie album. I can only take so much of this type of music at a time though

Solid album album, so really good songs and a quite a bit of filler.

Ok but not very memorable

good album couple of slow songs but the ones that I liked, I LOVED

Ah yeah noughties folk indie pop revival. I like it at its more upbeat - no cars go and keep the car running.

Over-dramatic pop rock for theater kids. The dude's whiny singing fits the juvenile lyrics well. Ocean of Noise was a decent song at least.

I was very familiar with this album. Played it quite a lot when I first came across it. Some great songs, some so-so. Probably expected I’d give it a 5 stars when I first saw it on my feed, but this listen had me thinking it was a step below some of the 5 star albums I’ve reviewed recently. 4.5 rounded down.

What if Bruce Springsteen lived long enough to use an iPhone?

Never thought I’d agree with Rolling stone.

I'm not connecting to this. But it seems intentionally remote.

I lost interest in so-called 'alternative' music in 2000s. I had kids (who liked pop music), and a busy life, and I thought it was just that I was getting old and irrelevant that I wasn't particularly interested in a lot of the new alternative music coming out. I read enough to be aware of the bands that were getting critical acclaim (The National, Arcade Fire, Wilco, Neutral Milk Hotel, Ryan Adams, etc, etc), but I just thought I was getting old and just didn't get it. These days I am less inclined to blame myself. I really try with these records, but they are all so pretentious and dull! It's the emperor's new concept album, I swear. How did The Arcade Fire get THREE dull albums onto this list at various times? (Although I note that two have subsequently been removed, including this one) This is yet another example of critics falling over each other to praise the latest serving of pretentious and earnest literary blancmange. But really, this kind of music is just a testament to pretentious white middle-class straight male indie rock stars expecting that their creative output will bestow public adulation upon them while simultaneously exonerating their terrible private behaviour. Time has revealed that Win Butler is an arsehole that nobody can stand -- even his wife and brother keep their distance these days. And he's not nearly as clever as he thinks he is. Pretentious white middle-class straight male critics are particularly susceptible to lapping up this conceit -- a form of wish fulfilment fantasy, perhaps? But I think a lot of people are getting sick of the paradigm. I certainly am. It's literary and worthy, emotional and poetic and profound and tasteful and ambitious and blah blah blah blah blah, I am so bored and slightly appalled. Over-rated.

nice

Hard to say which AF I love most

I didn’t mess with the Arcade Fire when they came on the scene. I was just trying to get myself extricated from the nu metal scene, so Arcade Fire to me were part of the new folk rock revival that was lame. Turns out I was lame because I’ve heard two Arcade Fire albums now and loved both. I listened to Arcade Fire's second album, Neon Bible, and for a second album, it’s huge. Usually, you think of a sophomore slump when it comes to music or even sports, but Arcade Fire went into the studio with a plan and the plan was bigger and more. The album was recorded in a renovated church, while their first album was recorded in an attic, essentially. The album was written by the Arcade Fire leader, Win Butler. Butler was born in the U.S., but had moved to and lived in Canada for a long period. After touring the U.S. in support of their debut album, Butler wrote Neon Bible as a kind of outsider’s view of what was going on in America at the time, which seemed to be a lot of fake religious people and scammers. As I listened to the album, it seemed the songs just kind of got bigger and bigger as it went on. More instruments were added, and the songwriting was more bombastic. At the end of the album, I felt a little blown away, shellshocked. Like that was a lot from an indie band from Canada, but even by the time Neon Bible came out, I feel like Arcade Fire had wrested that era’s crown away from Mumford & Sons, who were also huge then. Reviews for the album were mostly glowing, though some felt the production was a little overblown, and I get that. This is a big album. Win Butler was swinging for the fences. I feel like he hit a home run. I listened to the album that came after this called The Suburbs, and I don’t feel like I had the same kind of reaction for it as I did to Neon Bible. I remember liking The Suburbs, but this album is more over the top, more Bruce Springsteen/Jim Steinman-like. If you aren’t familiar with Arcade Fire, I’d recommend starting with this album, at least of the two that I’ve heard. I assume their debut album, Funeral, will be on this list as well, but Neon Bible has everything you want in a rock album. It’s got the bombastic pompaucity and the nice introspective moments too. The musicality is off the charts as in one song you’ll get a horn section, in another a hurdy gurdy and another a symphony. I think I’m officially an Arcade Fire fan now.

This was crap

I'm so sorry I'm a bit out of focus to give this one a real review. But I'll try my best. I kinda like the production here, it's nice and not to dense like their debut. I like. Their first and famous album is one I liked at first listen but didn't come back to much. It didn't stick with me. At least not till today. Though the bangers there are undisputed. I feel like this one is a bit more balanced. What can I say, the energy of this band is very specific, I like it here. And I feel like the songs are good as well. Again, I'm not in my best form today. But this is how it works. It's quite nice. Windowsill for example, great explosive song. Guitars all through and chorus at the end are great. As it goes I like it even more. No Cars Go have such amazing textures. The lost song is good and powerful too, but I feel like the mix is buring the instruments a bit here. It's a bit of a shame. I think I liked it quit a bit .especially songs 9 and 10 which are very very special. Unfortunately I'm not focused enough but it's still a decent and deserving 3.

Good album love the layering of instruments on arcade fire albums.

This was a fascinating listen that I will certainly be returning to. The song structures are solid and create a huge sound that seems best suited for a large arena. The songs are infectious, and it's easy to get lost in the rhythm—I often found my head involuntarily bobbing and foot tapping. Musically and lyrically, the album channel the grandiose scope of U2 and the critical commentary of Springsteen. Strong 4, for sure.

8/10

9/10 - stunning album, profound lyrics and vocals, adding that signature arcade fire harmonic sound, brilliant.

It’s was good album. Not the best, but good.

This was OK. I have never been into any Indie bands, and Arcade Fire is no exception. I liked a few songs, which is many more than I can say for that Fleet Foxes album a couple months ago. 3/5

Love it. Would buy.

sorry the only thing I can think of is a harry styles / zayn malik fic titled Keep The Car Running that was huge in 2013. thanks arcade fire for the one direction fanfiction inspiration I guess

inoffensive, but also unimpressive

2010 me would've found this revolutionary, I wish I could send this rec back in time to her because I can't super appreciate it now. She did listen to My Body Is a Cage though, so not a complete regret.

7 - GOOD

Basically an editors album

Dark brooding feeling, good production, very fun to listen to

Like Intervention, the rest is so so.

Boring as sin

Not in my wheelhouse.

Love this album

This sht is ahh. A lot of the good reviews on this seem to be blinded by nostalgia. This sounds like the imagine dragons of whatever genre this is supposed to be.

++

I'm having a bit of a hard time trying to put words to how I feel about this album. My knee-jerk reaction is to, in a complimentary way, compare them to Coldplay, but I don't think that's really all that accurate. This is much less "fake", but I'm not sure what I mean by that lol. I think the best thing about this album is that it is really full and grandiose. Most of the "white space" of the album is used for effect. Otherwise, I'm pretty certain there's always something going on, without every really being overwhelming. Arcade Fire is the golden child of 2000s Indie Rock, but I just don't really get the greatness/fame some put on them. It's very good, don't get me wrong, but I'm not sure any of their albums will end up in my top 200 or so at the end of listening to all these albums. Favorite Song(s): Keep the Car Running, Ocean of Noise

This indie rock album feels like standing in a cathedral built from static and stained glass—majestic and immersive, but heavy with the echo of its own despair.

sounds like a band that would have a dorky dress code on their tour

A real stinker. Self-serious dumb guy poetry to the highest degree. Chamber pop adjacent sound (already a hard sell) without any sense of humour or playfulness. Awful stuff, get outta here.

Bored already after three songs. Not for me.

Am I the only one that finds this album kinda boring? Like it's not terrible but it's just meh. I've been listening to it off and on all day and it's kinda bland.

man i wish win butler wasn't a piece of shit and also made more than 3 good albums omegalul

Man, this album is boring as heck. I tried to like it, especially since I enjoyed the "Suburbs" album. But this just sounded repetitive to me. And what's worse is that it feels like that was the plan. Each song is crafted in such a way that it could be sung as an anthem. Simple slow chord progressions with simple refrains. My mind just sees the lighters (or cell phones) waving in the arena. AND THAT'S NOT A BAD THING AT ALL. It's just that this album felt like a string of that same sort of song. Meh. Favorite song: "My Body Is A Cage." A legitimately excellent song.

Plainly pompous

We backkk!! Sehr sehr indie – sehr sehr cool. Fangt eher langsam und ah aber hine use wirds würkli recht guet. Standout tracks: Windowsill & My Body Is a Cage

I haven't listened to Arcade Fire much, although I did see them live at a festival. I like the music and I think that the album requires/deserves a lot more listening.

Solid but kinda by-the-numbers sounding for this style and era. Favs: Black Mirror Ocean of Noise The Well and the Lighthouse Least Favs: Keep the Car Running- I’m so sick of this chord progression, feels like every single one of these bands does it.

I have this album, I love Arcade Fire!

Decent music and production but over my head.

Forgettable - glade Ibsaved my notes on Friday;) In some moments, the sound reminds me of great bands like Biffy Clyro, but the musical variety regarding guitar playing and singing feels a little limited. Found the album boring overall. Intervention is a nice track.

I had heard of this band but wouldn't have been able to name a song. Can't see that changing. Recognised a song though ......... I think. Bit dreary and depressing for me, the song about giving money to the church was intriguing. Not sure what the rest of them were about. Was ready for it to finish but it’s not awful so 2 stars.

The girl sitting in the pod across from me asked is this my playlist. i explained the whole process and she said great idea but not feeling this one can i finish it after she goes on her half day. (request denied because I'm on track 4 and its pretty good). 6 tracks in not feeling this one. not upbeat enough for me. back end got a bit more upbeat but still not loved.

Not too bad, but just not for me. The songs at the end were more enjoyable than the others. I know the band name from something else, but I don't remember any songs specifically, and never heard this album before. Wouldn't encourage me to continue listening.

Hadn't heard of them before, after hearing this I'm not so surprised. It was ok, but nothing to write home about.

Not for me, but some really nice bits

like the organ / orchestral bits - a bit cheesy? churchy bits go a bit christmassy sometimes , I think overall not for me

I don’t have an opinion either way.

8/10 Favourite: No Cars Go Least Favourite: Neon Bible

A good friend’s favorite album by his favorite band, let’s see how it goes. It’s just like all of them say, indie pretentiousness over church music, but it’s really good. A lot of this oddly reminds me of Springsteen in a way, if he loved organ and reverb. I don’t know that I’m a converted arcade fire fan, I do love suburbs, but this is on a level below that for me (and even suburbs drags on way too long).

three peat arcade fire listing. Although this is there only "not perfect" album it has some of their BEST songs. Also after relistening the initial lull in the middle is actually still pretty awesome.

Intriguing. If these guys had come along at the right time for me, I think I might have connected with them.

Drugie Arcade Fire w krótkim czasie. Albo mam zmęczenie materiału albo jest to słabsza płyta. Bardziej wtórna. Ostatnia piosenka to jest sztos, ale cała reszta przeciekła mi przez palce. 6/10.

Second AF album from this list. I can now add bombastic to descriptors of this band. The production is better but still a lot. It's over loud which I don't understand. I remember older musicians complaining about this issue and its ongoing controversy. Not sure this falls in that pit. Still not my thing.

Neon Bible feels like Arcade Fire staring at the world’s chaos and trying to find some light in it. It’s big and stormy, full of church organs, choirs, and that classic sense of drama they love, but it still hits some really human nerves. Songs like “Intervention” and “The Well and the Lighthouse” sound massive, yet weirdly intimate - like shouting into the dark. It’s not as raw as Funeral, but it’s deep, moody, and kinda beautiful in its gloom.

You see, I have tied myself into a pretzel. This is a great album, five stars right? But in a moment of what I can only assume was insanity, I rated the other Arcade Fire album, Funeral, only four. Where is the problem you may ask? Well that album is actually better than this one. How do we right historical wrongs? By emailing the guy who runs this thing as it turns out, but is it that simple? Then I would be tempted to adjust Syd Barrett's Pink Floyd down a notch or two and all of a sudden I am an anchorless ship in the middle of a vast uncharted sea. And as Arcade Fire taught me, there is a great black wave out here somewhere.

One of my favourite bands of all time

Very arcade fire

No sóc gens seguidora d'Arcade Fire, però aquest àlbum m'ha sorprès i encantat.

7/10

Yeah pretty good this one. Had seen the cover a few times on the past but never paid much attention.

Gosh, this brings me back. I was *so* into Canadian music when this came out…. It’s not the band’s best album. At all. But it’s strong from smart to finish, and “Intervention” is a helluva song. Probably 3.5 stars?

Wtf c'est tellement hétérogène, chaque morceau a une vibe instrumentale et vocale différente. Bcp aimé le premier son avec un côté assez classique mais en même temps originalité réelle dans la mélodie et les riffs ; bcp aimé les tonalités et les fins de phrase au clavier notamment. Bcp moins fan des sonorités comme Intervention avec des nappes de synthé et bcp de réverb dans la voix. Sinon pas mal de sons aussi qui passent de manière un peu fade, qui me paraissent pas si travaillés et un peu bateaux (par exemple Ocean on Noise, qui est joli par endroit mais sans plus, avec des petites modulations en majeur qui font un peu soupe à mon goût) mais peut-être que j'ai pas assez de background pour apprécier. On va aller sur la note un peu classique quand on n'a pas détesté mais qu'on sait pas trop quoi en penser : un petit 3 (plutôt un 2,5 dans l'idée).

je sais qu’il faut pas juger un album par sa couverture mais qu’est-ce que c’est que cette couverture sortie tout droit d’une wallpaper bank? ok pour les néons mais bon… à part ça j’ai bien aimé, notamment Keep the car running (qui pour une raison obscure m’a fait penser au jeu gameboy bob l’éponge quand bob et patrick sont dans la voiture et doivent esquiver des méduses). pour une fois j’ai même bien apprécié les morceaux plus calmes, et je pense que l’expérience d’écoute dans une église (vu que si j’ai bien compris ça a été produit dans une église) doit donner une autre dimension à l’album, surtout avec l’orgue dans Intervention par ex. ça sera un 3.6 mais en partie parce que je crois que tout le rock commence à se ressembler—par pitié je manifeste que l’algorithme sorte un autre genre

I am very on the fence about Arcade Fire. Some of their stuff I really like, and I've listened to some songs where I just don't get it. I think this is my first full album listen through of theirs. To me, a lot of this sounds very over-produced. It lands some of the time. Others it just seems all a bit much. I wish the vocals came through a little clearer. I haven't really moved from my spot on top of the fence. There are some cool sounds here, but also some really kind of dull tracks that just don't do much for me. Standouts were "Black Mirror" and "(Antichrist Television Blues)" I think I'll stay a casual observer and pick and chose the tracks I like. Overall the album was pretty decent. Nothing super captivating for me. 3 stars.

meh

Nice alternative, indie pop album. Sound a little bit like Talking Heads.

There were times I kinda liked it, but for the most part I'm not really a fan.

Decent Arcade Fire album, idk what the people who made this list are smoking putting this in the 1001 albums you should hear before you die though. I remember this even being meh when I was in high school and stomp-clap-esk music was in. I will probably never listen to this again. There are still some great songs on here. I just don't think this has stood the test of time.

I was confused with French distilled here and there before I saw that they were a Canadian group! I liked it but nothing special

This was a nice journey

It may or may not be the best time to listen to Arcade Fire seeing how much this band has gone through in the last 5 years, but since I got recommended Neon Bible, I thought I'd give it a shot and see what the hype is all about. I wasn't very huge on Funeral, and every time I hear that project it grows off me more and more at a rapid rate, so going into Neon Bible I was a bit hesitant. Thankfully I can say that Neon Bible is a far better project in my eyes, but I still don't see the full hype behind this band just yet. The overarching sound of this project as well as the songwriting and production feels so much more consistent and handled much better than with Funeral's very messing and all over the place sound. While it may not have the same level of highs, it does have a consistency that is felt across every track here that keeps it all tight. I really enjoyed the three track run of Ocean of Noise to (Antichrist Television Blues) as that stretch showed how much more work Arcade Fire had put in as a band and boomed with confidence. I can totally see this project continuing to grow for myself as I really enjoyed the thoughtful compositions of this project. While sometimes it can be a bit much more than one can chew, I respect the hell out of Neon Bible for continuing to show growth and maturity from the band as they continue to expand on their explosive mix of Indie Rock and Chamber Pop. Nuff said!

Loved it

I liked it but it was maybe a little too long. 3.5/5

Only knew one of their songs before this, but this is a solid album.

- arcade fire tuttu entuudestaan, tältä levyltä pari biisiä - arcade fire ollut itelle aina bändi jolla yksittäisiä ihan sikke kovia biisejä, mutta levykokonaisuuden verran ei sytytä ihan täysin - sama tämän albumin kohdalla, vaikkei huono ole tosiaan - no cars go yksi kaikkien aikojen kovimmistä biiseistä silti imo

Great album

Had this on CD and saw them play it live and it remains my favorite Arcade Fire album. A solid 5 that has stayed on rotation since its release.

Neon Bible I never really caught the Arcade Fire hype train back when this came out, and have never really given them a proper listen. Although I’m not totally enthused by it, I think I’ve missed out a little, as I definitely liked it. It is definitely of an ilk with that late 00s US indie sound I’m not keen on, but it certainly has more melodic and instrumental flair than a lot of that music, although there is still a distinct tang of the self importance and self seriousness that informs a lot of that music. I like Black Mirror as a melodramatic opener, the piano riff strings are great. A few songs reminded me of Echo and the Bunnymen, Keep the Car Running and The Well and the Lighthouse in particular. There’s definite echoes of Bowie here and there too. And I very much liked the Springsteen feel to Intervention and (Antichrist Television Blues), and I enjoyed Ocean of Noise and No Cars Go with its little video game synth. Ultimately I think this is a solid 3, there’s a fair bit that drags and feels a bit pedestrian, but there’s also just about enough intriguing stuff happening to make me want to come back further down the line and re-evaluate. 📕📕📕 Playlist submission: (Antichrist Television Blues)

The electric guitar is noticeable by its absence as a lead instrument throughout, except to provide a low-in-the-mix chug, or to tremelo some atmosphere. That's why it's hard to classify AF as an indie rock, or guitar band. There's too much else going on for that. The only way you can classify them is as five-star, atmospheric soothsayers, holding a (black) mirror to us all. That's literally the only way. Darker Springsteen, epic writing.

I was hesitant at first, but this was actually a lot of fun. It was very dark, but also very entertaining. I enjoyed it thoroughly. The instrumental parts worked very well. This is a very cohesive album. I was humming a lot of rhythms after it finished. This is actually a 4.5. Liked Songs: "Black Mirror" , "Keep the Car Running" , "Intervention" , "Black Wave / Bad Vibrations" , "The Well and the Lighthouse" , "(Antichrist Television Blues)" , "Windowsill" , "No Cars Go" , "My Body Is a Cage"

Ok 2.5

Very much enjoyed it, really does feel like listening to a neon bible

This would've gone triple platinum on my iPod touch when I was younger. I still like it but the pacing's a bit weird and the lyrics are a bit boring.

The album locks you in a echoey mirrored room and bombards you with capitalism twisted christianity and lets you watch how it distorts lives real and imagined. Grand sound and grand stories, a wonderful trip.

I had great memories of this album but with this recent listen maybe it doesn't shine as well anymore. It's still really good and a good sound, but something of the magic hasn't been retained maybe?

Interesting.

ça ne m'a pas marqué pour être honnête

Pas très intéressant, rien de remarquable qui les différencient d'un autre groupe. Laura n'a pas aimé

Achei chato 4/10

Most of these albums, I didn't listen to close to the time that they came out. This one however, I did! And I didn't like it then! And I don't like it now! It's just not for me. It's slow moody music and the singing is not my cup of tea. However the organ? Exquisite. I love the music, just not the singing. That brings it up to a 3 for me but literally no more because the voice actually grates on my ears.

I enjoyed listening to this, but...I don't know man. There's something simultaneously overblown and overly simple about Arcade Fire's music, not to mention pretentious. It's a good listen, but not something I find myself drooling over. Fave tracks: - Keep the Car Running - Windowsill - My Body Is a Cage

Uplifting and euphoric

Arcade Fire has better albums than this one. Maybe this list would make more sense if they put actual "top of the top" records on it instead of filling it with decent but mediocre stuff. 3 stars

I think of arcade fire as now, but this album is from 2007. Likes it

Really good album. Loved windowdill and Antichrist Television Blues.

Not as good as other Arcade Fire albums.

I love Arcade Fire. Their albums all have an unabashedly big, theatrical, sometimes symphonic sound, all while incorporating catchy rhythms. Their use of many different instruments allows then to weave together different sounds and musical influences, while remaining distinctively recognizable as a band. As others have pointed out, Neon Bible has a darker, rawer sound than many of their other records, but it is also joyful. Every tune on this album is good, some are absolutely fantastic. It is a great sophomore record from an interesting and fun band. Reading other reviews here, a common thread is that the record in “pretentious”. I’m not sure what these people think the band is pretending to be? Perhaps they feel like they like their intentionally big sound lacks intrinsic talent? That is clearly not the case. People have widely varied taste in music and I can see why some wouldn’t like this record, but I don’t get the pretentious criticism. The band is creating the creating exactly the kind of music they intend in a style disticlt their own (in other words the music is authentic, the opposite of pretentious). And as evidenced by the fact that the band is one of the more important and critically acclaimed bands to break out of the 21st century indie scene, doing it pretty damn well. I digress, mostly because I feel like this particular criticism is lazy. Also ironic, because the act of judging an album as "pretentious" simply becacuse you don't like it, is actually a bit pretentious. I love music from almost all genres, but indie rock, in its various flavors, is frequently in rotation. Mostly this is because I find bands in this genre exporing new sounds, which I find interesting. Does this make me pretentious? Perhaps, but as a 55 YO nerdy dad, I'm hardly a hipster. Like many here, I also love learning about the evolution of modern music, especially when it involves discovering music I’d previously overlooked. However, it is also nice to see examples of the ultimate culmination of sounds pioneered by artists from the previous century. In this respect it is lovely to see more recent indie records here. Neon Bible may not be Arcade Fire's best record, but it is a great and appropriate addition to the list. 8.5/10

You can tell they’re running out of ideas.

Not a fan

3/1001 скучная, претенциозная и затянутая хуйня дебильная манера исполнения + еще более тупые текста невыносимо слушать

скучный бред, таких альбомов будто сотни существует, тупо ост для осд. очень бесит голос и манера произношения. единственный трек который сильно понравился был испорчен мужланом этим. лан он буквально каждый трек своим скулением испортил

later

Eh. If this was from like the 80’s or something I might give this a bit of a pass for being boring and bringing nothing new or interesting to the table, but these guys have 3 entire albums on here and this album specifically released in 2007, so it gets no passes for being unoriginal from me. This is the first of them I have heard and the most popular on the site as well. It’s just kind of boring and generic indie electronica rock. It’s melodic and orchestral, but never really that good or exciting for the entire length of the album, until you get to the last song on the album, which I LOVED, “My Body Is a Cage”. Around 2 minutes into that song, there’s an absolutely killer tone shift that is unlike anything on the rest of the album. I really wish anything was even remotely comparable to how much I enjoyed that riff. This is a band I feel like I heard mentioned a ton around the 2010’s, never heard any of their music, knew nothing about, and then they were quickly excised from public conscience a few years later. Don’t know why we need 3 of these here, but who knows, maybe the other 2 show me something new. Somehow, I doubt it. This was a bit pretentious, I wouldn’t really return to it, and didn’t really connect with all that much of it, but I still never actively disliked any of it, so it’s still getting a 3 from me.

A dark Americana album reflecting the anxieties of the mid-aughts. It's got a dissonant, threatening atmosphere. Been a fan of this one for a long time... I think it's incredibly solid, start to finish. In fact I started to list out the tracks I especially like, but I realized there's actually only 1 out of the 11 that I'm even ambivalent about ("Keep the Car Running"). Instead then, some of my favorite parts: the opening climb in "Black Mirror" (fun fact: this song is where the anthology television series Black Mirror gets its name); when "Black Wave" flips to "Bad Vibrations" ("eating-in-the-ghetto-on-a-hundred-dollar-plate"); and the big crash at 2:10 in "My Body Is a Cage." Funeral is my favorite Arcade Fire album but this one gives it a really close competition.

Didn’t love this quite as much as Funeral but Arcade Fire is one of my favorite previously unknown artists I discovered through this project. 4.5 rounded down.

We gave Funeral 4.67 (yeah, I was the 4), and The Suburbs 3.67 (I wasn't the 3). This isn’t quite as good as the other two, but still an easy 3.5 roundup. Maybe I should listen to them more often.

Like the first four songs (especially keep the car running), like the last three songs (especially my body is a cage—I hope somebody got to be surprised by the drop today), despise the stuff between.

Meh. I don’t know what it is but I’ve never enjoyed this album all that much. They have better stuff. I liked maybe 1 song here. Maybe not even enough for 3 stars. Hmmmm

I don't think I've listened to this one of theirs before. I like it.

Not much to say about this one. It's not bad, doesn't really break out of the norm and started to get a little mundane at the end. "My Body Is A Cage" brought me back in a little.

Strong but not overwhelming, milquetoast in parts. Enjoyable! 3.6

I like this in theory, but it doesn’t work in execution.

oh so this is what the folk revival bands were smoking circa 2011. not as good as I thought it would be

⭐️⭐️.5/5. Never been a huge Arcade Fire fan, and this album helped me define why a bit better. Too rocky and evocative of other bands and eras I don’t enjoy, and none of it new or different. Felt like something I’ve heard a million times, and not in a good way. I did enjoy the lyrical focus on religion and struggling with it.

butt

As with Funeral, I like Neon Bible well enough, I just still don't know that I fully understand the magnitude of praise that Arcade Fire receives. Don't get me wrong, this is an album of well-produced, well-written, slick indie songs, and there is a consistent level of quality here, I just don't think Arcade Fire are really the most interesting or enjoyable indie band out there. It may just be a matter of preference, I usually prefer my more energetic indie to have some more teeth than Arcade Fire can usually show. That being said, there are moments here that achieve a more baroque, densely arranged sound that I think Arcade Fire wears well. And I do have some highlights: Intervention, Black Wave/Bad Vibrations, The Well and The Lighthouse, and No Cars Go. In particular, I think the build at the end of Black Wave/Bad Vibrations may be the finest moment on the entire album. On the other end, (Antichrist Television Blues) and Windowsill didn't do a ton for me. Overall, the consistency across this album is really what saves it. A lot of these songs have something going for them. And the front to back listen is pretty enjoyable too.