YMMV / Arcade Fire

• Awesome Music:
  • From Funeral: "Wake Up," "Rebellion (Lies)," "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)," "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)"
  • From Neon Bible: "Intervention," "(Antichrist Television Blues)," "No Cars Go," "My Body is a Cage"
  • From The Suburbs: "Half Light II (No Celebration)," "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)," "City With No Children"
  • From Reflektor: "Reflektor," "Joan of Arc," "Porno," "It's Never Over (Oh Orpheus)," "Afterlife," "We Exist"
  • From Everything Now: "Signs of Life", "Electric Blue", "Good God Damn", "Put Your Money on Me"
• Broken Base: Arcade Fire has one of these pop up every time they put out a new record, because they're so partial to updating their sound and content between albums; some of their fans will hate the new sound, while others think it's a step in the right direction for them. Reflektor has caused the largest splintering to date, because it's changed the band's sound the most.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Song version. "Haiti", a non-single track from Funeral, is popular among fans and played at nearly every show.
  • "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)" takes this up to eleven. It's perhaps the most instantly recognizable track off of the Suburbs and serves as the grand finale to many of their shows. Possible next single, as well, which would follow the odd trend of the second-to-last song on each album being released as a single and being considered that album's Signature Song.
• Epic Riff: "Haiti," "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)," "Neighborhood #2 (Laika)"
• Fan Myopia: In the UK, at any rate. They have enough fans that they can headline the prestigious Reading Festival (a postition where the standard is band with a singificant UK and international fandom), yet most people in the UK have never listened to them, and many have never heard of them. They rarely get played on radio, and aren't generally talked about outside of indie rock circles. In the internet age, where national culture lines are increasingly blurred, it's very easy for UK fans to forget this.
• Fridge Logic: A fragment of "Creature Comfort" says "Assisted suicide / [she] filled up the bathtub and put on our first record". The name of their first album was Funeral.
• Genius Bonus: The CD of "Neon Bible" does not have a barcode printed on it - entirely appropriate for an album about the Apocalypse.^note A theory popularized in the 90s argued that barcodes were "The Mark of the Beast" referred to in The Book of Revelation.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Having Andrew Garfield play a trans woman for the "We Exist" video is this for fans of The Magnetic Fields and their song "Andrew In Drag."
• I Am Not Shazam: After the Grammys, some people seem to be really mad at The Suburbs for winning Album Of The Year. This is a bit confusing, since The Suburbs were a punk band from the seventies.
• Mainstream Obscurity: The Suburbs debuted at Number 1 on the Billboard 200 and won the Grammy for Album of the Year. You'd be hard-pressed to find someone who isn't already into indie rock who knows any of Arcade Fire's songs. 'Cept maybe "Wake Up." One noted exception, though, is the Chicago media market, where they have sold out shows and were voted at the top of the XRT listener poll for the best album of the year.
  • This seems to be starting to change with the publicity generated by their Grammy win and contributions to the Hunger Games soundtrack. In the current musical climate they're probably not going to break through completely into the mainstream, but it's okay- as a beloved cult band of the 2000s, they're in pretty good company.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "Who Is Arcade Fire?"^ExplanationA Forced Meme by jilted fans of the bands who lost to Arcade Fire at the Grammys.
  • "The Fire got washed out by the Tidal." ^note  Referring to Win & Régine infamously shilling for Tidal, Jay-Z's attempt at a Spotify-killer which is generally regarded as one of his only business ventures that failed. Also of note, Win went out wearing this◊
• No Such Thing as Bad Publicity: "Who is Arcade Fire? They didn't deserve to win a Grammy! No one knows who they are!" Well, they do now...
• Paranoia Fuel: "The Wilderness Downtown." Big Brother Win Butler is watching you.
• Signature Song: "Rebellion (Lies)" is the most obvious, though "Wake Up," "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)," and "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)" would probably also qualify.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: Does this commercial for Microsoft sound familiar to you?
  • Delta Goodrem has been accused of ripping off "Rebellion (Lies)". Judge for yourself.

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