Arcade Fire- Everything Now REVIEW

I'll never forget the first time I heard Arcade Fire. Hunkered in the library and listening to Pandora while studying for finals, the opening riff for "Wake Up" started playing and instantly blew me away. The hauntingly poetic lyrics and passionate instrumentation was unlike any indie rock band I had heard before. This inspired me to dig deeper into their catalog, and as a result I found a band that, with every single release, experiments with new sounds and genres, while still maintaining that Arcade Fire charm.

Perhaps the highlight of my journey with the Montreal-based group was listening to The Suburbs, their third full album and in my opinion their best. Having been an angst-ridden and bored suburbanite myself, I instantly related to lyrics delving into feelings of conformity and being stuck where you are. It was an album definitely worthy of winning Best Album of the Year at the Grammy's.

One of things I admire most about Arcade Fire is how robust their discography is. Their first three releases (Funeral, Neon Bible, and The Suburbs) were all stellar, and even their latest album Reflektor was a solid release, despite containing a few bumps here and there. So when the band announced that they releasing a new record in the summer of 2017, I had few worries that they would fail to create another stand-out album.

Then I heard the singles leading up to the release. Some, like "Everything Now", were pretty decent, while others, such as "Electric Blue", were a little more... interesting. However, I was certain that once I listened to the entire record that any reservations I had would be washed away as I experienced what would certainly be one of the best records of the year.

On the day it came out, like a kid on Christmas morning, I eagerly awoke, grabbed my phone, and immediately began listening to Everything Now, an album destined to be one the band's best. After making it halfway through the track listing, my enthralled smile turned into absolute befuddlement. This was definitely not their best record. In fact, it wasn't even good. Not only that, but it was also absolutely awful, the worst Arcade Fire album by a long shot. I felt betrayed. How could this be the band that made magical songs like "Rebellion (Lies)" and "We Used To Wait"? It didn't make any sense.

Having listened to Everything Now a handful of times, I have still yet to comprehend how it could be this bad. Even the singles I liked leading up to the release sound worse in context of the entire record. So I'm going to analyze the album track by track in an attempt to find out where it all went so horribly wrong. I usually don't write negative reviews, mostly because I would much rather talk about music I love. However, so great is my disappointment I find not discussing this album next to impossible. Therefore, I must vent.

#1: "Everything_Now (Continued)"

This is really just an extension of the title track. It's decent, but fails to really serve a purpose in the grand scheme of things. The last track on the record is basically the same exact song, because I guess Win Butler wanted to make the album one gigantic loop, for some reason I guess.

#2: "Everything Now"

Best song on the record. This is the track where Arcade Fire truly succeed at infusing a variety of disco-based sounds. It does a great job of incorporating these elements without sounding overtly nostalgic, which is incredibly easy to do when writing a disco song. Not an outstanding track, but very fun to dance to and very catchy. However, I think they made better dance music on Reflektor.

#3: "Signs of Life"

The biggest crime here are the painfully cliche lyrics. I feel like if I asked a random person to write a song about going to dance parties every night, any one of them could write these lyrics. Lines about cigarette smoke and getting lost in the crowd prove rather uninteresting, which for a poetic band like Arcade Fire, leaves me feeling kid of sad. It also gets really boring past the two minute mark.

#4: "Creature Comfort"

This single contains some of the most hard-hitting lyrics on the entire album. Pretty decent track, except when Win and Regine scream "on and on, I don't know what I want". That just gives me a headache. This track contains some great ideas, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired.

#5: "Peter Pan"

Up until this point, Everything Now has been decent, teetering on the edge of disaster but managing to keep it together. With this track, the band dives headfirst off the cliff into realms of mediocrity untouched by the band so far. Honestly, "Peter Pan" sounds like a terrible Miike Snow rip off. This sounds nothing like an Arcade Fire song. I know the band likes to experiment with different styles, but I never thought "boring cliche indie pop" would be their next musical adventure. Also, the lyrics are terrible. Seriously, this is some Jay Park level cringe. What a mess.

#6:"Chemistry"

This track is too goofy for its own good. I can't help but laugh at the opening verse, the instrumentation sounds like it was written for a joke song, not a serious piece of music. As well as being absolutely ridiculous, it's also one of the blandest and most uninteresting love songs I've heard in a while. Eventually the horns lose all humor and become absolutely mind-numbing. I find it hard to believe that anyone played this song, and in all seriousness said, "Wow, this track really rocks. Such a jam."

#7: "Infinite Content"

The fast-paced nature of the track feels very refreshing after the very tepid cuts preceding it. The incredibly simple lyrics talk about the consumerism that dominates modern society today. Not a bad topic, but there are other songs that do a much better job at discussing it (see "Content Nausea" by Parquet Courts). All in all a pretty solid song, especially the harmonious synths mixed with the guitars.

#8: "Infinite_Content"

Literally the exact same as the last song except instead of being fast-paced, it's slow and relaxed. Not really sure what the point of this move was. The first was honestly better, and putting a slower version of the same track after it takes away any excitement that had been built up. The record could have really benefited without this.

#9: "Electric Blue"

There's nothing exciting about this song, except maybe Regine's vocals, which are captivating for all the wrong reasons. I don't know what they did to her voice, but hearing her sing those tedious "na na na" lines like a goddamn squeaky toy is simply too much to bear. When my ears aren't being assaulted with what feels like a cheese grater, this song bores me to tears. I feel like my head is being slowly pushed underwater, and I can't fight back.

#10: "Good God Damn"

God damn, indeed. On this song, we see Arcade Fire try to write their own version of a Black Keys song, with little success. There's really not much to say about this song; I literally get sleepy every time I hear it. A throw away track if there ever was one.

#11: "Put Your Money On Me"

My personal favorite on the album. The haunting hook proves strangely seductive, a great dance track that leaves me with chills. The last chorus is a great ending to a track that slowly builds to the end. I only wish it came earlier in the track listing. After listening to so many awful tracks, I find it hard to enjoy this song as much if it had come after a song like "Everything Now". All the other songs have sucked all feelings of enjoyment out of my body. This album has rendered me an emotionless husk.

#12: "We Don't Deserve Love"

What can I say about this song that hasn't already been said about the album as a whole. Very smooth and effervescent, but so uninteresting in both its lyricism and instrumentation. The chorus is very saccharine, but the rest of this tepid song drags throughout its six minute run time. I find myself just wishing it would end because nothing happens worth mentioning, the most unexciting nightmare I have ever experienced.

#13: "Everything Now (Continued)"

See the review of Track #1. Like I said, they're basically the same for whatever reason.


I think the most frustrating part of the album is that both fans and critics have come up with lines like, "Arcade Fire have made it OK to like dance music again", as though groups like LCD Soundsystem, Daft Punk, and The Avalanches never existed. There's really only two or three actual dance songs on Everything Now, with the rest being sad attempts at recreating the works of other indie rock bands.

In the end, though, Arcade Fire's greatest crime on this record is how they seemingly just mailed it in. The songs don't seem to have received nearly the amount of attention we usually find on their albums. Instead, we're given a bunch of basic love songs that, in the end, don't feel like they're about anything, the lyrics feel that uninspired. I can only sit here and hope that the band's next release is better, and, honestly, that's a low threshold for excellence.