The Arcade Fire - Funeral album review

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Canadian six-piece The Arcade Fire’s 2004 debut gets a UK release with the burden of expectation weighing heavily on its shoulders, thanks to its poll-topping Stateside acclaim. The fruits of a marriage (between TAF core members Win Butler and Régine Chassagne) and several tragic deaths, Funeral is not unreasonably shot through with schitzophrenic stabs of regret, euphoria, melancholy and hope. At once wildly ambitious and reassuringly familiar in its peculiarly vaudeville take on widescreen indie aesthetics, tracks flip whimsically from Bowie-esque theatrical sketches to Motown stomps ("Wake Up"), from the jerky Talking Heads funk of "Power Out" to the kind of psyche-doolally arrangements The Flaming Lips had hitherto made their own. The sheer scope of Funeral is furiously addictive and renders it absolutely essential.

Charlie Ivens

Originally published in The Fly magazine, February 2005 issue