Ten Years Ago: Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

In the Ten Years Ago series, we take a look back at the ten most brilliant releases of 2010 which are celebrating their first decade this year. Next up is ‘The Suburbs’ by Arcade Fire.

In April, Win Butler, lead singer and songwriter in Arcade Fire, got the band’s fans very excited when he shared images of a handwritten note on his Instagram profile. The note detailed the singer’s experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown, and offered fans hope for the future, as he wrote of how he felt in the same positive creative space he had ten years earlier on the cusp of finishing ‘The Suburbs’.

The excitement caused by the reference is more than justified as ‘The Suburbs’ is Arcade Fire’s masterpiece. It remains rare to encounter a record so good that you can’t imagine it never existing. ‘The Suburbs’ is just one of those records – a true modern day classic.

Arcade Fire originated in Montreal and built up a dedicated fan base in the run up to the release of their debut record ‘Funeral’ in 2005. ‘Funeral’ enjoyed widespread critical acclaim for its unforgettable and momentous anthems all tinged with, and powered by, an aching nostalgia. It showed the world the talent of the group, their multi-instrumental abilities and willingness to experiment outside the parameters of the expected. ‘Funeral’, and its 2007 follow up, the moodier and brooding ‘Neon Bible’, saw the band become darlings of the independent music scene and bag some famous fans in the process – David Bowie was a huge champion and collaborator of the group.

The scene was therefore set for the band to consolidate the many strings to their bow and create their masterpiece. ‘The Suburbs’, released in August 2010, found the band at the height of their powers and quickly became considered to be a modern classic.

Like its predecessor ‘Funeral’, ‘The Suburbs’ is soaked with a heady dose of nostalgia. Win Butler’s lyrical direction on the album found him marrying memories of a suburban childhood with the imaginations of a dystopian war. The stunning opener and title track finds him re imagine his past as he sings “you always seemed so sure, that one day we’d be fighting in a suburban war, your part of town against mine, I saw you standing on the opposite shore”. The thundering piano led ballad is one of Butler’s finest lyrical moments and sees him trying to find beauty in the chaos as he sings “don’t you understand, that I want a daughter while I’m still young, I want to hold her hand and show her some beauty before all the damage is done”.

The nostalgic tinged melodies are an undercurrent flowing throughout the record and often provide some of its most enjoyable moments. The pulsating power of the marriage of strings and chanted vocals on ‘Rococco’, the delicately understated guitars on ‘Suburban War’ and the lazy and aching melodic hum of ‘Wasted Hours’ are all moments of sublime songwriting and melodic grasp.

That’s not to say that ‘The Suburbs’ lacks bite! Lead single ‘Ready to Start’ is an anthem as stinging and urgent as anything they’d released previously and finds Butler full of indigence as he sings “the businessman they drink my blood, like the kids in art school said they would”. The electric rattling riff powering ‘City with No Children’ and the desperate urgency of ‘Month of May’ are further moments of intense rock and roll. The nostalgic lyrics may paint the picture but it is the guitars that provide the emotional throttle here!

Consistency and variety may sound at odds but ‘The Suburbs’ arguably enjoys the benefits of both. The quality and depth of the songwriting doesn’t let up yet never does the record settle into a single groove. The songs twist and turn and often opposing styles sit by side and sound all the better for it. Excitingly the album also found the band willing to try out new sounds with the disco funk inspired ‘The Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)’ being perhaps the finest example.

It has also spawned many imitations and covers with highlights including Father John Misty’s stunning acoustic take on ‘The Suburbs’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6krmom_hjEE), Lenka’s eery piano led cover of ‘Deep Blue’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iof3qyY3I0) and Flyte’s heartbreakingly beautiful a cappella cover of ‘The Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains’) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7sX_qgnyqg). Imitation is truly the most sincerest form of flattery!

So there is good cause for excitement when Win Butler compares his recent songwriting to the band’s masterpiece. The follow ups to ‘The Suburbs’ (2013’s ‘Reflektor’ and 2017’s ‘Everything Now’) were both excellent records, containing many highlights and enjoyable moments, but they were also occasionally victim to a degree of self-indulgence and wayward meandering. ‘The Suburbs’ was free of this weight and remains an album to be listened to from start to finish and on repeat over and over again. As the pandemic inspires many to look back and remember happier and more carefree times, ‘The Suburbs’ nostalgic beauty is the perfect soundtrack for drifting away into happy daydreams of days gone by.