Remember a world without Arcade Fire?
Back in 2002 when this EP came out Franz Ferdinand had yet to come out, Modest
Mouse had yet to sell out, and people were still willing to shell out money for
boy bands and numetal. The thought that a Canadian music collective was going
to lead the Indies into prominence for the
internet generation would have sounded ridiculous, the fact that several made
it to underground god-hood is basically a result of the Arcade Fire.
For us now, looking back, it is hard to see this album
without reference to their subsequent work, especially since several of the
songs were revived on later albums. Most people did not hear of this EP until
after the band’s career took off, but such is the nature of EPs: they serve to
introduce a band to a core following that they can build on. This core
following then gets to tell subsequent fans “yeah, Funeral was good, but I
still like the initial EP best.” I would look down my nose at these people but
it took me a very long time to get into Neon Bible, given how different it was from
Funeral. This occasionally happens with bands whose subsequent work is
legitimately garbage but we will be talking about State Radio another time. Just
trust me and buy Flag of the Shiners, and not a god damn other thing by Chad
Urmston
In the context of their wider body of work, this EP is
actually pretty similar to their work in The Suburbs and Neon Bible, which
incidentally contains a remake of the song “No Cars Go.” Like many I bought
this in the post-Funeral era, but I found it somewhat jarring. Funeral emerged
in a period of indie dance music and was apparently lucky in that it happened
to capture this moment perfectly. Emerging the same year as Franz Ferdinand,
The Postal Service, and The Killers, Funeral is certainly more folksy and
introspective than its fellows, but in retrospect still contains the energetic
dance numbers and generous techno sensibilities that defined the 2004 class of
indie. If there has been one trend in indie since 2004 it has been the
mainstream’s appropriation of these techno sensibilities, even as indie rock shied
away from pop hooks and dancability. This has certainly been the case with
Arcade Fire and in this context Funeral stands next to other Arcade Fire albums
as an oddly popular child in a family of anti-social eccentrics.
This is not to say I find Arcade Fire’s other work bad, but it
is way less relatable on first listen. Listening to songs from Funeral in the
context of Neon Bible, The Suburbs, and the EP, it’s like a different band. I
honestly have no way to deal with this. They self produce all their work, so
there was no Evil Label interference going on. Funeral had to have been an
organic eruption. In some of the songs on the EP you can even feel it coming
on. No Cars Go and Headlights Look Like Diamonds are full the pop sensibilities
that make The Suburbs such a great album, and the latter even has the dace beat
that completely infected Funeral. When listening to Headlights Look Like
Diamonds you can see how this band produced Funeral. But then Vampire/Forrest
Fire starts and you feel lost and confused.
The recording quality here is good. While you can tell it
was a first effort and recorded quickly, especially in the context of songs like
No Cars Go which were later re-recorded, this album could be taken to mark the
era where cheap home recording equipment made it entirely possible for bands to
record lush, professional sounding albums in their basement, and still have
money for booze. Or in this band’s case yoga pants I guess. Anyway the album
sounds great. It only comes off as a bit spare in comparison to the other
albums.
The song quality is honestly top notch. Even as they are
clearly building up themes to be dealt with more fully on other albums, these
songs are fully realized works, well instrumentalized and beautiful. Even the
album art is wonderful, featuring the naïve colorized pattern collages that
they returned to on Funeral.
This is a great EP. If you are a fan of Arcade Fire you
should get it. It has none of the coherence of the albums and for the most part
lacks the fun of Funeral or even The Suburbs…but it has the DNA of both embedded
within its form. Listening to the EP you can hear the artistic sensibilities
that unify all three albums, but oddly recombine; pieces of The Suburbs will
coexist with pieces of Funeral in a stereotypical folk song structure, and then
the next song with have the exploded, meandering song structures of Neon Bible
in a song full of pop hooks. Not their best album, but a fascinating portrait
of a band getting their musical legs and finding their muse. A work fans could
probably argue about for hours.
For those who are not yet fans of Arcade Fire, or want some
sort of unbiased review of its actual attributes, perish the thought, this EP
is a bit tougher. Like all of Arcade Fire’s works the EP rewards repeated
listens, but like Neon Bible, and unlike Funeral and The Suburbs, the EP gives
the listener few early pop hooks. For those not used to the rigors of indie
rock (lolz) this kind of rigor may be a chore, and if you don’t already have a commitment
to the band I would forgive you for not finding it within yourself to do so. If,
on the other hand, you are a fan of esoteric folk music you might find my
critiques invalid. There is no deadwood here, though I feel the slowest songs
are stacked to the front. Someone wanting to get into a really weird band and
willing to expend a bit of energy to do so could well start here and easily
segue into any of their other albums. For those who don’t view music as a
kissing cousin of homework, I would really recommend you go get a copy of The
Suburbs. It has a slew of great, poppy, fun songs while being less of a
redheaded stepchild than Funeral. Goddamnit I am talking about the other albums again. Ahh feck. Just go buy it. It’s fun.
