- Anvilicious: Considering their musical style and inspirations, are quite fond of dropping this every now and then. Notable examples include:
- "Neon Bible": Squandering church donations and bible sales for selfish reasons rather than for charity, a problem that is not addressed enough.
- "Intervention": An ironically gospel-inspired Protest Song that basically says not to use your religion to justify violence, hatred and especially war. Considering the time that Neon Bible was released, it's undeniably appropriate.
- "(Antichrist Television Blues)": Uses the metaphor of an overzealous Stage Dad forcing his only daughter to pursue a career as a Christian singer to make money for himself and avoid work to address the problem of religious and pathological pressure that parents tend to push unto their children.
- The entirety of The Suburbs: It's a Concept Album that's story centrals around a suburban neighborhood that has been destroyed and used as a defense line during a massive civil war, which could be interpreted as a metaphoric message telling teenagers not to waste their childhood and teenhood on adult issues that will only ruin their lives by overriding nostalgia. The punch that really fuels this theory is the penultimate verse of the entire album, from "The Suburbs (Continued)":
If I could have it backAll the time that we wastedI'd only waste it againIf I could have it backYou know I'd love to waste it againWaste it again and again and again- "We Exist": A pro-LGBT anthem about a homosexual child who is alienated and bullied by their peers and emotionally abused by their parents. Coupled with the music video, which depicts a transgender person battling against a group of men in a bar (the dancing in the video possibly being a metaphor for physical abuse), plus being a disco/techno-inspired track (both genres of which have notable gay origins), it's incredibly Anvilicious.
- 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.
- First Installment Wins: Funeral is often considered to be the band's best album, with its only major competitor being the Grammy-winning third album The Suburbs.
- 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
- 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?
"Explanation - "The Fire got washed out by the Tidal." note
- "Who Is Arcade Fire?
- 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...
- Overshadowed by Controversy: The band's public image took a major hit after Win Butler's allegations of sexual misconduct in 2022. The allegations didn't outright kill the band, but caused the tour for then-current album We to lose its opening acts. The lukewarm-at-best reception of Pink Elephant, the band's first album since Win's allegations, coupled with their poorly-received Saturday Night Live performance to promote the album made it unlikely for the band to fully recover.
- Paranoia Fuel: "The Wilderness Downtown.
" Big BrotherWin Butler is watching you. - Sequelitis: Pink Elephant received mixed reviews from critics and became their first album to not chart, likely due to the album being influenced by Win's allegations.
- 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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- Delta Goodrem has been accused of ripping off "Rebellion (Lies)". Judge for yourself
- Tough Act to Follow: The Suburbs, which won the band the Album of the Year Grammy Award, has proven to be a hard album to follow to the point where fans and critics largely agree that the band started going downhill sometime afterward. Although immediate follow-up Reflektor was mostly well received, subsequent albums are said to be largely filler with just a few highlights here and there.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/YMMV/ArcadeFire
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