Neon Bible

iTunes Review

Neon Bible is a dystopian work for dystopian times. In the two and a half years since Funeral, their universally beloved debut, Arcade Fire has turned their attention outward rather than in, and they don’t like what they see: bombs, monster waves, water swirling up to the windowsill. “I don’t want to fight in a holy war / I don’t want the salesmen knocking at my door / I don’t want to live in America no more,” sings the expatriate Win Butler, sounding very much like that uber-American, Bruce Springsteen. Like Springsteen, Arcade Fire is willing to risk a little melodrama on their way to sonic grandeur. Luckily, their scruffy indie-orchestral aesthetic (featuring hurdy-gurdy, accordion, layered horns, droning guitars and processed strings, all played with an endearing, disheveled enthusiasm) keeps the bombast from getting too thick. And though the arrangements are busier than ever, the songwriting is actually more disciplined; Neon Bible’s songs are tense and explosive, but they stay away from easy catharsis. The most memorable moments here offer not release, but variations on dread: the sorrowful mariachi horns closing “Ocean of Noise”; a wall of white noise like surf or distant thunder, announcing the queasy, pounding two-chord opener of “Black Mirror.” The exception is “No Cars Go,” an older song that here sounds almost redemptive — a welcome return of the loopy, polyphonic idealism that made Funeral such a blast. Us kids know, indeed.