Arcade Fire has overwhelming success with their debut album, ‘Funeral’, to the point that even I, a huge fan of the band, would think it was almost getting out of hand. This left high expectations on the band, and a lot of pressure for this album. Released on March 6th, the album reached high chart positions across all major countries, but off the back of their previous album, this would have happened had the band just recorded an hour an a half of white noise. Not to say that the album doesn’t have its merits, because it’s certainly a disc worthy of any cd collection.
Arcade Fire have such a distinctive sound, a great quality to have in these days when unoriginal musical fodder too often graces our airwaves. With seven different band members playing an array of instruments, we see the band’s undeniable musical prowess on display yet again on this album. A pipe organ gives the fourth track, ‘Intervention’ and absolutely huge sound.
There are big differences however, between Neon Bible and its predecessor. The album is not as lively as Funeral, a sign of the band’s development certainly, as they seem far more disciplined on this album. For this reviewer though, this has been negative development, as I just found it too laid back at times.
Lyrically, Funeral focused on personal aspects of life, whereas this album takes on a much larger view. Husband and wife duo Win Butler and Régine Chassagne sing about worldly issues, such as the war, and their views on the effect of television today. One could also assume that the tsunami disaster from 2004 is referred to in ‘Black Waves/Bad Vibrations’ – “There’s a great black wave in the middle of the sea/For me/For you”.

Surprisingly, the second from last track on the album is re-do of a song from their first EP. ‘No Cars Go’ is probably the best song on the entire album in fact. It’s some of the trademark, fast-paced Arcade Fire that we expected much more of after Funeral. Too often on this album, we’re waiting for a song to kick in and really get going, and too often this desire is left unfulfilled.

The title track, ‘Neon Bible” is a short, slow song, but with a nice little riff, and I feel it deserves to be the album title. Other noteworthy tracks include ‘Keep the Car Running’ and “My Body is a Cage” as a rather intense closing track. The album is certainly a good one, but doesn’t have as many standout tracks as Funeral, and is perhaps at times, a little too mellow.
Overall, I’d give it 8 stars out of ten, I’ve come to expect music of the highest quality from this band, and I must admit they didn’t disappoint me. Good to see them take a risk and not just produce Funeral version two.
8/10.
Review by: Mark Walsh.