The Arcade Fire Just Released a Brand New Album and I’m Already Wondering What Their Next Will Be About

It could be the premature LOST withdrawal and I know the Arcade Fire just released The Suburbs last week but I have really immersed myself in it, I need to know what’s next.  I feel Suburbs ends with a lot of questions and perhaps a bit of a cliffhanger.  Now I know they won’t actually answer questions, that would be bad art, but I am really interested in knowing what type of album they will work on next.  For me, that’s a huge part of the answer. (Which kinda sucks because they tend to take their time between album releases). But as I mentioned in yesterday’s post, the Arcade Fire’s new album has me thinking about a number of things.

One, I hear this album has more autobiographical. I think Butler and friends are trying to figure out where they fit in. Does the label “indie band” really even define them in the sense of what “indie band” used to? Some define it as simply owning the rights to your own music, while for others, it’s a culture divorced from the mainstream. Playing Madison Square Garden makes them have more in common with Lady Gaga than Conor Oberst at this point (and that’s not all bad by the way). Like many other bands, I think they are in going to need to spend a great deal of time finding their identity again. That’s going to be interesting for them. And I don’t say that with this ominous prophetic tone expecting them to fail nor am I saying that they have the wrong one now but they’re no longer an “indie band”. As a big fan, I have full faith in them but they’re going to be different.

Second, I’ve also noticed that this album had more backlash than their sophomore release of Neon Bible. How will they respond? Especially now that they are the new band “on top of the world”. From how I see it, they are in a different position from other excellent bands like the Muse and the Kings of Leon. I am still not really sure what the Muse sing about, although I love’em and no offense to the Kings but I don’t listen to them and think, “Wow they really get me”, instead I think “Wow, roll down the windows, turn it up, I love rock & roll!”

Further I have the even more intrusive curiosity of what their music will be like if they welcome a child between now and their next release. Especially if this album was partially inspired from a picture of a childhood friend holding his young daughter outside a familiar strip mall near where Win grew up in the Houston suburbs. Win is 30, his wife is 32 – this is a blog and I’m just saying. But it reminds of a writer in Spin magazine asking what will Chris Martin complain about in his next album now that he married Gwyneth Paltrow and welcomed a beautiful little girl they named Apple. Martin and company answered with ‘free-trade”.

IF there’s a suggestion box, I’d like to submit the following: an album about what would make the world better. (Like U2’s How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb. According to Bono, you dismantle it “with love, love.” You can only be angry, jaded and bored for so long before you discover hope, love, and justice. Hmmm … Well, I hope they enjoy this tour, sell out all their venues, get richer ;-), then do something that inspires their listeners. They have plenty of time to figure it out and we as music lovers have plenty to enjoy until they release their next work.  If you are in Arcade Fire fan, I’d be interested in your thoughts on what you think will happen next.