With the recent announcement that Arcade Fire will start the recording their fifth studio album later this year, we look at their best tracks since their debut in 2004. From the four studio albums that this Canadian/American indie-rock band has produced, come four different sounds, four different visions and four separate LPs. Here are their top 10 songs as chosen by us.
Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) // The Suburbs (2010)
From the wonderfully nostalgic album The Suburbs, the band’s first UK number one album, comes this sentimental look back at the band’s early life growing up in the suburbs of Houston, Texas. One of the two songs sung by Régine on the album, it is a closing song that begs to be sung along to.
Whilst the melancholic feel of this song is a move away from the earlier songs in the album, the groovy keyboard maintained throughout was a teaser for fans for what was to come in 2013’s Reflektor. It’s a song that neither looks negatively or positively at suburban life. With lyrics such as “We rode our bikes to the nearest park” romantically looking at life in the suburbs, we see lyrics “Can we ever get away from the sprawl?” seemingly questioning the suburban lifestyle of the mid 90s.
Accompanied by a video set in the Houston suburb that Will and Win Butler grew up in, Sprawl II is a perfect ending to such an introspective album.