Your Silence Covers Me

So this is happening right now in that big world of webs...


Arcade Fire's full album stream of Reflektor on YouTube. It's not out until next week, but they knew a leak was inevitable. Enjoy the visuals too!

Now We're Staring At A Screen

After way too much breathless, net-driven hype, Arcade Fire has finally debuted Reflektor, the first single from the upcoming album Reflektor. The tune has a great vibe and sounds best on headphones, particularly to appreciate David Bowie's contribution. Yep.

The video is long, interesting, and a bit nightmarish. Watch it here or below. There's also an interactive experience here, which I could not experience because I don't use Chrome. WTF-ever. The whole effort pushes Arcade Fire to their natural pretentious boundaries and many may not have the patience. It's definitely "gotta-be-in-the-right-mood" music and it's not quite as instant as The Suburbs' Sprawl II, but I dig it on first impression.



Pre-order Reflektor here, to be released October 29. Paste was all over it today, btw.

The Feelings Swim To The Surface

Arcade Fire returns.



Reflektor 9/9/9. Tease much?

Update via Rolling Stone

We Were Already Bored

Congratulations to the following Too Poppy-approved artists who won big last night at the Grammys!

Album of the Year - Arcade Fire-The Suburbs (the night's second biggest surprise)
Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance - Paul McCartney-Helter Skelter
Best Historical Album - The Beatles (Original Studio Recordings)
Producer of the Year - Danger Mouse (Broken Bells)

That's just the tip of the Grammy iceberg. See the complete list here. Now can we please retire Fuck You (nice Elton John/Jim Henson rip-off performance last night), Hey Soul Sister (seriously, any song that name drops Mr. Mister...), Need You Now (Alan Parsons Project gone country - thanks, My Hmphs), Lady Madonna GaGa, and The Bieb?!

I'm Moving Past the Feeling

Spike Jonze is hitting the festival circuit with his Arcade Fired short film Scenes from the Suburbs. Check out "some kind of trailer" featuring angsty suburban kids and their bicycles. No. Really.

The Times Had Already Changed

The Wilderness Downtown - an extraordinary new interactive video by Arcade Fire set to their tune We Used to Wait. It's extraordinary on several different levels. It uses the power of HTML5, Google Chrome, and Google Maps to deliver a visual experience unlike any other yet experienced in the post-Music Television world. It's gimmicky, but it's not a gimmick. Thematically the "video" fits the song and really the entire Arcade Fire album The Suburbs. Fantastic.

Close your other programs and open Chrome if you're not already using it (Firefox would likely work too). MTV be damned!

Living in the Sprawl

Man, talk about the dog days of summer. My absence from Too Poppy has less to do with being out of town for nearly a week and much more to do with generally being uninspired to write about anything - until now anyway.

The iPod is unexpectedly being dominated by Arcade Fire's The Suburbs this month. I say it's unexpected because this is my third attempt at trying them out and the first time it's stuck. Previously I've just found them to be over-hyped and too pretentious. It's not that they're no longer over-hyped (they do have the #1 album after all) or pretentious, but the power of the music and subject matter breaks through on The Suburbs.

It is an investment at first. Although there are catchy tunes scattered throughout the diatribes on the suburban life, we're not talking three-minute perfect pop gems. Listen closely and repeatedly though and it'll catch. Oh, it'll catch. Modern Man is a great example. Try to shake it after the second or third listen.

The Suburbs times out at 60 minutes plus. In the age of the digital single this is a heavy ask for the casual listener. But as much as The Suburbs is a soundtrack for the suburban coming-of-age story, it is also an entirely convincing argument for the on-going relevance of the album as an art form. The Suburbs is best listened to in its entirety. The superb Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) is a stunner in its own right (finding its groove somewhere between Blondie and The Sugarcubes while even teetering unashamedly into Abbaland), but as the musical and thematic climax of the album, it transcends to glory. There have been few goosebump moments like this in recent years so when we have them we should exploit them. Over and over again.

You've likely read up on Arcade Fire and maybe you're even a hardcore fan. This is the first time though they've found a place in the Too Poppy universe. Let's enjoy.

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