So we got a taste of the New Arcade Fire before its real time (October 29th)? The album can be streamed in its entirety on Youtube with the images of Win Butler’s favorite movie of all time, ‘Orpheus Negro/Black Orpheus’, which strangely fits the music very well. Sure it’s all about dance!
I am streaming it and let’s just say there’s a lot to digest at once, it will take time, because first of all the album is damn long! 1:25! Is it too long so? The opener, the title song ‘Reflektor’ already sounds very familiar, but the rest is plain open for discovery and discussion, there certainly is this Arcade Fire’s typical sound but also plenty of dance beats, James Murphy’s fingerprints all over the place and so much more. But I actually like that, the fact I can’t make sense of it at once, that I can’t digest it in one meal. It is like a big fat cake sitting in front of you, that you want to taste piece by piece. Some songs sounded exciting at the first listening, some others will take time or will forever stay among the leftovers. I don’t know yet if I will ever like the strange reggae-ish rhythms, sort of reminiscent of the Clash, of ‘Flashbulb Eyes’, but ‘Here Comes the Night Time’ and especially the punk dancey ‘Normal Person’ sound really exciting. There’s a lot to be excited along the 13 tracks, a lot of weirdness too and the second part seems to drag a bit right now.
According to the LA Times, Ireland’s Rollercoaster Records put the record on sale early (are they allowed to do that?) which caused the album to spread everywhere, in other words it leaked, but isn’t it the case for all highly anticipated albums? The band reacted by setting up this stream of the complete album on YouTube. The first review I have read (The Guardian: ‘it sounds like the work of a band that have plenty of good ideas, but increasingly can’t tell them from their bad ones’ ooch!) is actually not very positive, and there will be a lot of these as it’s a different Arcade Fire, a whole new beast. My guess is that it will be a heated debate, a hot/hate/love/bore kind of thing with Pitchfork’s review deciding once for all where hipsters should stand. Meanwhile we will give our own review soon.