Arcade Fire - Reflektor

The pitch for the new Arcade Fire album is pretty irresistible. The Canadian collective, one of the key bands of the age, hook up with fellow musical heavyweight, James Murphy, with the intention of giving their sound the kind of disco feel in which the LCD Soundsystem man specialises. Spread over a double album (or ‘Vol 1 & 2’ to give each installment its proper title), Reflektor is one of those rare beasts: an album that sounds as good in practice as it does in theory.
The opening title-track you’ll probably be familiar with – it’s built around a seductive disco groove straight from Murphy’s DFA canon, and the terrific lyrics give some indication of why Arcade Fire are held in such high esteem. Addressing the issue of isolation in the age of social media (“We’re still connected/ But are we even friends?”), the track once again demonstrates that Arcade Fire have the happy knack of tapping into the zeitgeist, without their efforts seeming clunky or forced.
Fittingly, ‘Reflektor’ features an appearance from a man who’s long had a similar gift, David Bowie, and indeed the funk rhythm wouldn’t have been out of place on either of Bowie’s mid-’70s masterpieces, Young Americans and Station To Station.
Next up is ‘We Exist’, the sort of stirring rocker that is Arcade Fire’s stock in trade, albeit underpinned by a trademark Murphy electro bassline. The following three tracks all segue into each other, making for a powerful triptych. First up is the wonderful ‘Flashbulb Eyes’, built around a reggae groove that climaxes in a blissful collision of marimba, horns and guitar.
The exploratory odyssey continues with ‘Here Comes The Night Time’, a slice of quirky art-rock again reminiscent of Station To Station (this time ‘TVC 15’). The suite concludes with the blaring rocker ‘Normal Person’, which sees Win Butler delivering some killer lines (“I can’t tell if I’m a normal person/ I think I’m cool enough/ But am I cruel enough for you?”)
Opening with, of all things, a sample of Jonathan Ross introducing the band on his TV show, the swinging, danceable ‘Joan Of Arc’ brings Vol 1 to an end in considerable style. The classic Greek tale of doomed lovers Eurydice and Orpheus clearly remains a source of fascination to rock ‘n’ roll bands, with Nick Cave amongst those to have tackled it in recent times, and now Arcade Fire themselves twice invoke the story on the second half of Reflektor (for good measure they’ve also put a sculpture of the pair on the album cover).
As well as touching on Greek mythology, the clattering art-rock number ‘Awful Sound (Oh Eurydice)’, references a more staple rock ‘n’ roll theme – and one that reappears constantly throughout the Arcade Fire canon – namely, that of escaping smalltown ennui. The word “school” (shorthand for adolescent angst) is a motif on Reflektor, and appears again on ‘Awful Sound’, with Butler singing “You came home from school/ Knew you had to run… Just let me be the one for you”.
‘It’s Never Over (Oh Orpheus)’, meanwhile, is a full-on electro assault with echoes of LCD Soundsystem, and boasts inspired use of gospel vocals. But Arcade Fire save the best ’til last. The electro-funk groove of ‘Porno’, reminiscent of Kraftwerk, is one of the high points of their output to date, whilst the lyric – about lovers who continually hurt each other – is similarly impressive.
The album concludes with ‘Supersymmetry’, an elegiac, melancholic love song that builds to a powerful crescendo. The number’s prolonged coda, which lasts for several minutes, is a distressed jumble of distant noise, which sounds like a city going into apocalyptic meltdown.
Reflektor is unquestionably one of the albums of the year, and another superb addition to the already stellar CVs of both Arcade Fire and James Murphy.

Key Track: 'Porno'