Remember when I said I was going to count down my favorite songs on this blog? Me either. Let's do it anyway.
Note: I combined these two songs into one post for two reasons. One, both bands are from Canada, so they can share a post title. Two, both songs use the phrase "your kind" to talk about groups of people, which I find to be one of the oddest phrases in the English language (Maybe it's a Canadian thing, eh). Three, I didn't have that much to say about Broken Social Scene that hasn't been said elsewhere.
#20: KC Accidental - Broken Social Scene
BSS is an amalgamation of various Canadian indie musicians that have been touring and releasing music for over a decade (You could call them a supergroup, but they prefer collective, instead). Their albums keep you listening because of the quick shifts between style and tone. While that description may seem exhausting, transitions between songs are genrally quite seemless, and almost always pleasant. I could have easily chosen their most famous song, 7/4 Shoreline (don't worry - there'll be a song with a weird time signature on the list shortly), or the tremendous World Sick off of their most recent album. In the end, KC Accidental is such a splendid, odd little song that I had to choose it.
#19: Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) - Arcade Fire
I've been listening to the Arcade Fire for a while now, and I still can't quite put my finger on how I feel about them. On one hand, I probably listen to them more than any other band, save for a few. Their ability to consistently craft great, traditionally structured songs is nearly unparalleled in modern music (they really don't have a lot of clunkers that you need to skip when you listen to a whole album). Arcade Fire features seven band members which normally screams too much, but they have a knack for being able to incorporate all of their instrumentation without feeling bloated. Furthermore, they seem to be dedicated to crafting complete albums; the themes running through each album (death of loved ones for Funeral, disillusionment with societal institutions in Neon Bible, and you can probably guess what The Suburbs is about, at least superficially) give a sense of importance and focus to the proceedings.
In spite of all this, I still find myself not being as warm towards them as I am with other bands. I think that the very thing that limits their ceiling for me is one of their strengths mentioned above: their adherence to chosen themes. What Arcade Fire hasn't yet done is create a moment of music that sounds as if it were truly spontaneous. Now of course, perceived spontaneity is not a prerequisite for great music. Many of the artists and songs later in the countdown will be just as calculating and self-serious if not moreso when compared with the Arcade Fire. But me to adopt a band as one of my favorites, there has to be the occasional sense of giving in to the music in some sort of primal way, and I rarely, if ever, feel that from them. Their treatment of issues and emotional responses to those issues can be seen as rather clinical. This might sounds strange coming from me, but when you think about how they put together their albums and songs, it almost seems too logical. I'd really like to see them get weird with their next album, if only to see what they're capable of producing on the margins of semi-radio-friendly alternative rock.
That's enough railing on the Arcade Fire, though. If I was doing a countdown of my favorite bands, they'd probably be higher than 19th, so I can't complain too much. I debated about a dozen different songs of theirs for this list, but ultimately chose Sprawl II. It summarizes The Suburbs basic themes of alienation and belonging nicely, which is good because it's seemlingly the dramatic conclusion to the record. If you pay close attention throughout the album, you can hear how the Arcade Fire slowly builds up your tolerance to the synth throughout the album and then unabashedly blare it in the penultimate song.
No comments:
Post a Comment