Win Butler, front man and lead song writer of Arcade Fire, grew up in the American landscape, presumably in the suburbs. It wasn’t until he was an adult that he moved to Quebec, married Régine Chassagne and formed Arcade Fire. They first released Funeral, a sad but honest look at death and relationships. They followed up Funeral by huddling up in a massive church and filling the large walls with echoing sound, deepening and enlarging their music. The result was Neon Bible.

Now, it’s been four years since the release of Neon Bible, and Arcade Fire has done something no other band is doing right now; instead of they wrote a concept album about the suburbs, deep with mixed feelings and nostalgia. They rid themselves of the enlarging noise of Neon Bible and the epic song structure of Funeral, but delivered a realistic look at the feelings surrounding growing up and revisiting the suburbs.

There is something about growing up in the suburbs; the friends, the things they do, and all the wasted time. There is something about the style of the suburbs; the roads, the familiarity, the mountains of malls, and all the driving around. There is something about the daily growth in the suburbs; the creativity and the life of the children, the pressures of conforming and growing up, the strange feelings of moving away from your home. There is something ordinary but extraordinary about these nostalgic suburban feelings.

Arcade Fire delivers these thoughts and feelings with ease across their sixteen song album as all the songs on the album are related as they take different perspectives on suburb life.

The songs are filled with attempts to hold onto childhood, obvious realizations of having to become an adult, and memories of revisiting what was once home. On the song “Ready to Start,” Butler sings about becoming a businessman and starting his life as an adult, growing away from the child’s creative spirit. He hints that if he was someone else, or with someone else, he would’ve tried harder to be creative. The songs with Régine Chassagne singing lead stand out, almost as if she represents the creative spirit outside of the suburbs. On “Empty Room,” Chassagne and Butler duet, calling out for each other in an empty room, as if he is trapped in the suburbs and she is far away in the promised land waiting for him and on “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)” she shouts about staying alive and artistic in a land where everything is the same and everyone tries dampen your spirit.

In the end, Arcade Fire takes all of their nostalgia, all of their mixed feelings, and says easily and matter of factly, “if I could have it back, all the time we wasted, I would waste it again,” summing up everything and moving on, realizing that regardless of what happened or whats going on, there is joy in these memories.

Mp3s from The Suburbs:

Empty Room

The Suburbs

Sprawl II

Ready To Start

All tracks found here.