new albums

in the last two months, two albums that i have anticipated were released. #1 being Arcade Fire's The Suburbs, and #2 being Anberlin's Dark is the Way, Light is a Place. i confess to having preordered both albums and that i shelled out the money to see both bands on their tours this fall-- and i'm not ashamed of either of those facts.

as for the albums themselves.

The Suburbs wasn't surprising to me at all, except perhaps in the sense that there was very little eccentric-ness featured in it compared to say, Funeral. also, this album, for the general rule doesn't possess any of the bitter, strange opinions that Neon Bible was such a great exhibit of. that's not to say that The Suburbs is lacking--it's far from that actually. songs like "Empty Room" with wild string intros, "City With No Children" with insanely catchy rhythms, and "Sprawl II" with angelic voices and pounding under beats, make the album absolutely incredible in my opinion. lyrically, the title is 100% appropriate, in fact all of the songs are built around the title. and as usual, there are statements that make any one think such as: "And you feel so right/But how come you can't sleep at night?" ("Modern Man"). overall, i would whole heartily suggest The Suburbs to anyone who likes indie rock; even if you found their last two albums too eccentric you might find this one more accessible.

Dark is the Way, Light is the Place was however, a big surprise. prior to the album release there was quotes flying around the internet about how the band members considered this album their "magnum opus" and along the same lines of their hit album Cities (and my favorite by far). honestly, after the first listen i hated this album. now that i've given it more spins i can say i enjoy it a lot more--but it still feels lacking. there just seems to be so many things wrong about this album. for one, the opening song is, in my opinion, completely un-sing-a-long-able; therefore making it pretty much a flop. another different, not necessarily wrong, thing is the percentage of slower to average speed songs; in comparison to their prior albums this trend sticks out. one definite disappointment is the lower epic-ness of the closing song. "Depraved" is epic for sure, but not nearly on the same level as "(*fin)" or "Miserabile Visu". perhaps the biggest wrong is the complete unrelatedness of the title and the songs that compose the album--i just don't see the connection between the two anywhere. all of this is not to say that Dark is the Way, Light is a Place is a bad album, or that i hate it (i definitely would suggest songs like "Down", "Pray Tell", and "Impossible" to anyone), it's just obviously not Anberlin's magnum opus.

i'm definitely looking forward to seeing Arcade Fire on September 29th at KeyArena, and Anberlin on October 14th at the Showbox SoDo