The Arcade Fire

Funeral left a nasty aftertaste. It was the sound of Canadian post-rock’s shoulda-beens puréed into slush. David Bowie was a fan, and a Grammy nomination and mainstream media adulation followed. Neon Bible retains Funeral’s overblown theatrics, shameless histronics and kitchen-sink instrumentation, but the Arcade Fire has moved on to new preoccupations – paranoia, evasion, escape and confinement, each explored at a number of levels – and truncated, punchier takes on its baroque pop model. Watching a security camera, you can watch your own image/And also look yourself in the eye, frontman Win Butler muses as “Black Mirror” chugs and shudders ominously though a funhouse. After starting with elegant string-section cascades and Regine Chassagne’s vocal radiance, “Black Wave/Bad Vibrations” plunges into a tense orchestral dirge. Ridiculous notions such as that song’s eating in the ghetto on a hundred-dollar plate arouse titters — something this meditation on celebrity probably didn’t intend.