Us Kids Know

Well, well.This is a crafty band. With the charity single, the iTunes "accident," the leaked songs, and the high school cafeteria performance, everyone who's anyone and anyone who's everyone now has at least half of what may be indie rock's most long-awaited album of the last 12 million years, or however long it's taken to make.

The Eternal Law of Enormous Hype tells us that this album could never possibly live up to the expectations that surround it, and that may be true. Now we place it upon the Extremely Large Scale of Rock and Roll Justice; the album is almost as produced as Thriller, but we can still hear the fingers on the guitars and the missed beats. It's more epic, and it's more melodic, and it's confusing the fuck out of indie kids, who have no idea whether it's better or worse than Funeral, myself included. And while we figure it out, the Arcade Fire is going to make millions and we're going to be listening to what is without a doubt a fantastic album, whatever place it'll take on the Disproportionately Massive Indie Rock Wall of Fame and Shame.

The Arcade Fire - Keep The Car Running (mp3)
The Arcade Fire - Black Mirror (mp3)

And now for a comparison:

The Arcade Fire - No Cars Go [pre-Funeral version] (mp3)
The Arcade Fire - No Cars Go [Neon Bible version] (mp3)

Yeah, we know.