SOUND BITES

  When it comes to Arcade Fire, reading an opinion like “their best album since The Suburbs ” can be a very exciting thing to hear. After all, the collective’s third album is considered by many to be their magnum opus, and one that came out a dozen years ago at that. So, hearing someone say that implies a grand return to form, an attempt to recapture some of the goodwill they had at their zenith; as if to say, after a lost decade messing with their sound and their fan base, Arcade Fire was back . The thing about that statement is, while it’s technically true, it says less about Arcade Fire’s heyday than it does about the two albums that followed The Suburbs as the group crawled through the ‘10s; Reflektor released in 2013 as an overstuffed and meandering attempt at following bold new pathways, while 2017’s Everything Now was hampered by a borderline-disastrous, oversaturating promotional campaign and a dumbed-down presentation that spoke to the rampant consumerism of our modern s...

It's hard to go into Arcade Fire's fifth album without a mind toward all the noise surrounding it, whether pre- or post-release; a multi-faceted, relentless social marketing campaign (with emphasis on "marketing") leading up to the album's arrival gave way to lukewarm reactions to the music itself, which puts me in kind of a weird position giving this album another go nearly a week after its release. In a way, I've been pre-conditioned by the band to ignore its commercial trappings of the record because they've made such a huge, elaborate joke out of selling out; in another way, I've been set up to hate it by my peers, fellow fans and critics who were more than ready to eviscerate Arcade Fire's first major label release. So, with these factors as far out of mind as possible, I slapped the headphones on one more time to form as close to an informed personal opinion as I can glean from Everything Now . The thing is, as I listen I can't help b...

ARCADE FIRE Reflektor From: Reflektor Released: October 29 I was all set to include Normal Person as the song nominee from Arcade Fire's fourth album, but then two things happened: 1. I kind of soured on the song's sense of piss-taking on rock ("Do you like rock and roll music? / 'Cause I'm not sure that I do" is said before the album's most glorious rock song unfolds). 2. The title track, which I was lukewarm on upon its release, grew on me. A lot. Does it overstay its welcome? Absolutely, but that's indicative of the album as a whole; here's hoping the rest of Reflektor grows on me too (although that second disc will be hard to go back to on a regular basis).

As much fun as it is watching a band grow and evolve over the years and through their assorted projects, sometimes it's nice to see them take a step back, shrug their shoulders and try walking in someone else's shoes for four minutes. Whether it's a faithful reconstruction or a sonically shapeshifted alternate vision, it's always fun to hear what an artist can do with a song that's not theirs. Here are ten artists whose interpretations of familiar songs got the biggest smiles from me in 2013:

A couple of weeks back, I mentioned ten awesome and/or important albums that have the distinct privilege of being released during the months of July and August, a virtual musical dead zone where labels keep the good stuff locked in their cupboards for the fall shopping season and have stopped adequately promoting the marquee releases that came out in spring. We covered a good chunk of the 90's during Part 1. Today, let's have a look at 1997-2012, and ten more albums that beat the odds and captured that elusive Summer Greatness.