Early Disappontments

Arcade Fire – Neon Bible

Some bands have a distinctive sound so, when you hear it, it’s unmistakable. With Neon Bible, the Arcade Fire proves that this isn’t always a good thing. The band’s latest sets its sights on all things religious, which is commendable for its audacious ambition. Unfortunately, the music’s tone and approach are so narrow that the lyrical content could be on just about anything and it would still sound like Funeral. The same insistent drumming, the same vocal inflections, the same mid-jangle tempo and the same kitchen sink instrumentation that starts small and builds into white noise strings. For any other band, maybe this works, but with Arcade Fire’s patent set of grandeur, monotony comes too quickly. Perhaps it’s too much to be asking, but this sophomore release doesn’t better what the band has previously done.

Bloc Party – A Weekend in the City

There’s no avoiding it. This album is a clunker. Bloc Party tries to go big or go home on A Weekend in the City and they fail miserably. Every song turns into an epic with devastating lyrical precision. The only problem is that the band forgot to make the music interesting. A Weekend in the City is plagued by mid-tempo yawners that are either hookless or simply too distant or too cluttered with self-seriousness to go anywhere interesting. If I wanted to listen to Coldplay, I would listen to Coldplay. By the way, I don’t want to listen to Coldplay, and after a few spins of this record, you won’t want to listen to Bloc Party either.