Line #59 Music/TheSuburbs


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_suburbs_7773.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350: And just when I knew what I wanted to say / A violent wind blew the wires away.]]
3
4	''The Suburbs'' is the third studio album by Music/ArcadeFire, released in 2010. A ConceptAlbum, leader Win Butler wrote the bulk of the lyrics inspired by memories of growing up in The Woodlands, which is, yes, a suburb of Houston, Texas.
5
6	''The Suburbs'' can be seen as the album that really broke Arcade Fire as a globally huge rock act. It debuted at the top of the charts in UsefulNotes/{{Canada}}, UsefulNotes/TheUnitedStates, the [[UsefulNotes/{{Britain}} United Kingdom,]] and UsefulNotes/{{Ireland}}, and subsequently won the UsefulNotes/GrammyAward for ''Album of the Year'' in 2011.
7	----
8
9	!! Tracklist:
10
11	# "The Suburbs" - 5:15
12	# "Ready to Start" - 4:15
13	# "Modern Man" - 4:39
14	# "Rococo" - 3:56
15	# "Empty Room" - 2:51
16	# "City with No Children" - 3:11
17	# "Half Light I" - 4:13
18	# "Half Light II (No Celebration)" - 4:25
19	# "Suburban War" - 4:45
20	# "Month of May" - 3:50
21	# "Wasted Hours" - 3:20
22	# "Deep Blue" - 4:28
23	# "We Used to Wait" - 5:01
24	# "Sprawl I (Flatland)" - 2:54
25	# "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)" - 5:25
26	# "The Suburbs (Continued)" - 1:27
27	----
28
29	!! Principal Members:
30
31	* Will Butler - Synthesizer, piano, vocals, guitar, bass, organ
32	* Win Butler - Lead vocals, guitar, piano
33	* Regine Chassagne - Lead vocals, drums, piano, harpsichord, synthesizer, organ, keyboard strings
34	* Jeremy Gara - Drums, percussion, piano, synthesizer
35	* Tim Kingsbury - Bass, guitar, vocals, percussion
36	* Sarah Neufeld - Violin, vocals
37	* Richard Reed Parry - Guitar, vocals, double bass, piano, harpsichord, percussion
38	----
39
40	!! If tropes were yours, but they're not:
41
42	* AlbumTitleDrop: "The Suburbs."
43	--> ''In the suburbs I, I learned to drive''
44	--> ''And you told me we'd never survive''
45	--> ''Grab your mother's keys we're leavin' ''
46	* AlliterativeTitle: "'''M'''onth of '''M'''ay", "'''M'''odern '''M'''an".
47	* BreakUpSong: "Empty Room"
48	--> ''Said your name, in an empty room''
49	--> ''Said your name, in an empty room''
50	--> ''Something I would never do''
51	--> ''I'm alone again''
52	* {{Claustrophobia}}: "City With No Children" has a verse that could make a claustrophobe break out in hives:
53	-->''I dreamed I drove to Houston on a highway that was underground''\
54	''There was no light that we could see as we listened to the sound''\
55	''Of the engines failing.''
56	* ConceptAlbum: Not a linear story, but serves as "a letter from the suburbs" as Butler put it.
57	* DarkReprise: The title track sounds at least tentatively hopeful when played at the top of the album. The abbreviated version at the end sounds tired and defeated.
58	--> ''If I could have it back''
59	--> ''All the time that we wasted''
60	--> ''I'd only waste it again''
61	--> ''Waste it again, and again, and again...''
62	* DeliberatelyMonochrome: "Ready To Start" was promoted with a black and white performance video.
63	* DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife: From "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)":
64	--> ''These days my life I feel it has no purpose''\
65	''But late at night the feelings swim to the surface''.
66	* EmoTeen: From "Month Of May":
67	-->''So young''\
68	''So young''\
69	''So much pain for someone so young''\
70	''I know it's heavy, I know it ain’t light''\
71	''But how are you gonna lift it with your arms folded tight''.
72	* GratuitousFrench: "Empty Room"
73	--> ''Toute ma vie, est avec toi''
74	--> ''Toute ma vie, est avec toi''
75	--> ''Moi, j' attends, toi tu pars''
76	* {{Hipster}}: On "Rococo", the band – who have kind of a hipster background themselves – take on hipster audiences who abandoned them for being too mainstream.
77	* NostalgiaFilter: "The Suburbs"
78	--> ''And all of the walls that they built in the seventies finally fall''
79	--> ''And all of the houses they built in the seventies finally fall''
80	--> ''Meant nothing' at all, meant nothing' at all, It meant nothing''
81	* OneManSong: "Modern Man".
82	* OneWordTitle: "Rococo"
83	* ShoutOut: The first line of "Ready To Start", "If the business men drink my blood…" is lyrically very close to Music/BobDylan's "All Along The Watchtower".
84	* SpecialGuest: The deluxe edition bonus track "Speaking in Tongues" features backing vocals from Music/DavidByrne; of note is that the song shares its title with an [[Music/SpeakingInTongues album]] by Byrne's former band Music/TalkingHeads.
85	* StepUpToTheMicrophone: To date this is the Arcade Fire album where Regine Chassagne takes the most lead vocals, as distinguished from backing and harmony vocals.
86	* TechnologyMarchesOn: InUniverse the subject of "We Used To Wait", which isn't wholly positive on things like texting taking over from letter writing.
87	* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: "The Suburbs"
88	--> ''But by the time the first bombs fell''
89	--> ''We were already bored''
90	* YouAreNumberSix: “Modern Man” draws a connection between taking a number and being reduced to a number.

Context Music / TheSuburbs