Arcade Fire - Neon Bible

I'm making a conscious decision to cover more music that I actually like. Unfortunately, it doesn't really make for very good reading, because I'm better at being angry than I am at being enthusiastic. This is because I've had more practice at the former because so much stuff's shit.

Arcade Fire aren't shit. They're good. See, there's the problem in a nutshell. The word 'shit' is far more interesting than 'good'. Go further than 'good' and you start sounding like some pseudo-intellectual cheerleader or like the band's official press release or something.

Several people who didn't make the mistake of sounding like Arcade Fire's official press release were those reviewing the album for BBC2's Newsnight Review last Friday. Most of them hated it. They were pseud-ing it up to a frightening degree in their criticisms, which was ironic, because most of their problems with Arcade Fire revolved around the band's supposed pseud-ishness.

Arcade Fire aren't pseud-y. They're good. As their only defendant on Newsnight Review pointed out, the others clearly hadn't listened to the album. Or maybe they just hadn't been able to hear it over their own overly-poetic, yet bizarrely light-on-substance criticisms that had kicked in after the first two crotchets.

The people on Newsnight Review were dicks. You should buy this album, because everything they say is wrong. They'd be wrong about which way is 'up' and which way is 'down'.