In 2013, Arcade Fire finds itself in a situation where few indie rock artists can honestly say they’ve been. With over 10 years in the business and three excellent records under their belt, they’re still at the top of their game. The band’s 2010 album, “The Suburbs,” received widespread critical acclaim, fueled a world tour, and secured the band an Album of the Year Grammy win. Any musical group (especially one with humble beginnings) that achieves such notoriety is in danger of hitting their peak. On “Reflektor,” Arcade Fire has confronted this danger with a stunning and refreshing stylistic shift.
The band’s new approach is immediately apparent on the opening track. A syncopated drum fill kicks off a bouncing, disco-inflected groove. Throughout the seven-and-a-half-minute track, a wide variety of instruments layer on top of one another in typical Arcade Fire fashion. This time, though, the band forms a more intricate, interwoven structure, with each instrument’s rhythm playing off of the last one’s. It’s a slight tweak that breathes new life into the classic Arcade Fire song formula. By comparison, the pounding rhythms of “Rebellion (Lies)” or “Rococo” sound archaic and caveman-like.
Despite its sprawling, double-album structure, “Reflektor” manages to continue introducing new sounds with each track. “We Exist” draws from ‘80s new wave; “Flashbulb Eyes” features a sinister-sounding dub rhythm; “Here Comes the Night Time” takes the form of slinky dancehall reggae. Rhythms from singer Régine Chassagne’s native Haiti figure predominantly throughout the album. Though the band employed Afro-Cuban rhythms as early as “Funeral’s” “Haiti”, the rhythms act as a motif on “Reflektor,” lending cohesion to the album’s differing styles.
“Reflektor” is arguably Arcade Fire’s most danceable record, not only because of the incorporation of Haitian percussion loops, but also because of the band’s newfound embrace of electronic and synthpop sounds. The band explored some of these textures on “The Suburbs,” but they are more fully fleshed-out in “Reflektor” on tracks “Here Comes the Night Time II,” “It’s Never Over (Oh Orpheus),” and “Afterlife.” These songs are not just the result of pure sonic experimentation – rather, they’re an adaptation to a changed musical environment. In the decade that’s passed since Arcade Fire was formed, the traditional guitar-rock paradigm has been turned inside out. Few if any contemporary indie rock artists have not embraced electronic sounds or digital production techniques. Some have eschewed instruments altogether and reside entirely within their laptops. Arcade Fire has managed to carefully work within this new environment, taking advantage of a new sonic palette while still retaining its authentic voice.
The album covers a lyrical spectrum nearly as wide as its musical spectrum. Songwriter Win Butler uses the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice as an allegory for the feelings of love, faith, and loneliness that he struggles within what he dubs “the reflective age.” The album touches on such subjects as the numbness of digital communication (“Reflektor”), the conflicting emotions brought on by fame (“We Exist,” “Flashbulb Eyes”), and the perils of aging (“It’s Never Over”). The entire album builds up to penultimate track “Afterlife,” where Butler, our modern-day Orpheus, pleas to save a dying relationship. Unlike Arcade Fire’s previous work, “Reflektor” doesn’t tell its stories using the Springsteenian backdrop of the everyday American life, but its statements are no less accessible. After all, the majority of fans will probably listen to “Reflektor” while “staring at a screen.”
“Reflektor” is Arcade Fire’s longest-running album to date, and while it achieves many ambitious goals, it occasionally spreads itself too thin. Headbanger “Normal Person” sticks out among the rest of the album’s polished funk. The contrast highlights the song’s worst elements and makes it come across as homogenized alt-rock — the type of music you’d hear in the background of a commercial for a show on the Discovery Channel. The album’s most glaring misstep is a 10-minute hidden track at the end of disc one made up entirely of song snippets played in reverse (ostensibly a “reflection” of the album). It’s only a matter of time before a superfan decodes the satanic messages undoubtedly hidden within, but until then, the track is just a meaningless collage of noise.
In a 2010 interview, when asked about “The Suburbs’” supporting tour, frontman Win Butler remarked that it was the first time the band couldn’t pretend that no one had heard of them before. If that statement wasn’t true then, it certainly is now, when Arcade Fire is one of the biggest bands around that still qualify as “indie rock”. Many artists that achieve this level of fame can’t continue to meet the demands of the capricious music world. Thankfully, on “Reflektor,” Arcade Fire shows that it’s not afraid to take some risks. The band is not willing to be shoehorned into the stadium-indie-rock genre that it effectively invented. While the album may upset the diehard fans of its earlier style, it represents a turning point in Arcade Fire’s career and bodes well for what’s to come next.
iostaszewski@hillsdale.edu
