This is where the new blog is at :)

http://antifyre.tumblr.com/

Music - 'The Suburbs' by Arcade Fire.

So here we are again.

Superlatives aside, Arcade Fire have had the time of it since emerging from their frozen-white home place in 2003; withered and widescreen and willing to tell all and sundry about it. And on their third album, even more than their other two, they are looking to make those statements that connect with you, and your heart and your head,and at the same time circumvent the walls and wheels you have put in place to keep other, less-deserving 'landscapists' out. Horizon rock is ok again, yeah.

And it is.They are close again here to the flat wall of emotion, in step with Win Butler's chosen subject matter and full of the usuals (Community, Family and 'the kids').The songs wrap around, returning to the places and feelings they were pulling against in 'Funeral' - Their 'Thirty-something' record, after being painfully dragged out of adolescence in their debut, and getting lost in pot and politics in an apartment far off campus on 'Neon Bible'....

The shining examples here are many - 'Rococo' with it's kiddish singalong sense and off edge tone,'Suburban War'- which hints of 'Wonderful Life' in it's verses before driving off to the corner store , and 'Sprawl II' - which brings some classic Arcade Fire sounds into new life, with an electro beat and Regine's pine-fresh vocals.

The album may have one or two tracks too many to cope with; 'Month of May' is a b-side, and 'Deep Blue' gets to hang around purely due to it's escalating lalala's, but the rest complete each other, building into two distinct halves, that not only refuse to produce radio friendly anthems, but promise that it may be awhile before they do again...

Arena Rock without the Anthems? Arcade Fire prove again that they have a hardwire into what people may or may not want to feel, before they even know it themselves.

JK

Sick

So sickness has me by my proverbial's,and I am already over it as they are bent on saying here in Sydney... What does this give me time to do? JH's new blog (re: Nut Job) seems almost marketing-like in it's timeliness, as while certainly not in the same boat, I have faced three days with not much to do (apart from the constant want of sleep) - So I listen to new music, and watch more Lost and try and be sympathetic to friends in rough places in different world venues (chin up, folks!)... The saving for world travels does grate, as does the inevitable waiting - We are busy and yet stagnant, which is a lousy conundrum...

So we smile and laugh, and have more silly conversations...and see more bands (it nearly killed us to go, but the Pixies were STAGGERINGLY good), and watch more docos, and make more plans :)

Apologies; I need to get more writing out there, but this whine was necessary as a 'cleanser'...back to some good stuff...

JK