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ARCADE FIRE – Reflektor

(Universal)  There is a common thought process that the average music consumer does not have the patience to listen to a complete recording anymore. It’s like if Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon was released tomorrow, punters would be downloading Track 6, then Track 2 without fully experiencing the record’s full sonic concept. Well Montreal indie-rockers Arcade Fire are about to put that theory to the test with the release this week of  Reflektor, a two-record set (now when was the last time we saw one of these!)

Hardly surprising that Arcade Fire would buck the system, coming on the heels of their break-through Grammy award-winning ‘’Festival” , band members;   front man Win Butler, wife Regine Chassagne,  brother Will Butler, Jeremy Gara, Tim Kingsbury and Richard Parry have again  set their own rules and standards in recording music, first defying and then winning over their critics.

There is a kitchen soup mentality about Reflektor with its numerous tentacles wrapping around a kaleidoscope of sounds from electric to art rock, to reggae, dub, post-disco to punk, it’s all here. Yet there is an overall adhesion here which brings this variety of influences together. This is why Arcade Fire have been so difficult to categorize because they refuse to be labelled.  It’s a record that touches all the senses and emotions from the darkness of `Awful Sound’ and `It’s Never Over’ to the upbeat spirituality of the Caribbean flavoured `Flashbulb Eyes’

Arcade Fire is not your typical auto-tuned, computerized commercial pop pap, Reflektor demands your attention and that in itself is a challenge. But this is the way recordings are supposed to be created, music that challenges you and pushed you to keep on listening and ultimately rewards those that do have that perseverance.

Download on iTunes: Reflektor

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