The Singles Jukebox

The fact has not created in us a sense of obligation.

[Video][Website]
[3.10]

Patrick St. Michel: Local straight man thinks gay marriage is good, writes shouty song with boring groove in support.
[4]

Josh Langhoff: I’m not sure why I hate Arcade Fire all of a sudden. In the wake of Neon Bible and Sasha Frere-Jones’s “A Paler Shade of White,” I used my critcs’ poll comment inches to defend the band as the only indie rockers with decent beats. Actually compared them to Lime, which I’m pretty sure wasn’t a cry for help. The problem is, as they’ve gone “disco,” they’ve gotten stiffer, less groovy. On “Keep the Car Running,” they bashed out a backbeat over blues changes with cheerful authority; now they sound like they’re frowning over Jamey Aebersold Play-A-Long CDs after school. Yes yes, we all like “Billie Jean.” And yes, “We Exist” is the best of the Reflektor singles (still haven’t heard the album, but dadrock radio keeps me apprised). During the breakdown — backbeat, bassline, Ray Manzarek organ sound tracing the change from major to minor — I almost believe they know what they’re doing. But the more Jeremy Gara hits that snare with leaden determination, the more the singers pound out their big message, you realize how the drama in “Billie Jean” and the Lime oeuvre sprang from their nimbleness. Arcade Fire will never be nimble.
[4]

David Sheffieck: The world would be a better place if they didn’t, though.
[0]

Mark Sinker: So, that time Simon Frith bashed the Chilli Peppers, arguing (correctly) that their rhythmic folkways stood on dodgy rhetorical foundations, with 100-plus years of African American drum culture ending up as on-stage socks on frat-boy cocks. My friend — who favours free jazz and the crinklier reaches of orchestral modernism, and has heroically terrible taste in rock — was quite cross at Frith for this, and defended RHCP: “Racist? At least they’re trying!’ Now the Arcs are not the Peps, and for sure “We Exist” (as its own kind of appropriation pickle) is hardly a consequence of over-funning the brattism, but here we are. “At least they’re trying!!”The band’s own symbolic economy — we’re good-hearted people! — cuckoos everyone else’s off-stage, for the sake of the most wanly pass-agg evocation of disco motorik you heard since I have literally no idea. 
[4]

Anthony Easton: I am unconvinced: the overproduced ennui that works well for indie rock is a different kind of mannered than disco, and indie disco usually over emphasizes the indie and under-emphasizes the disco. 
[2]

Brad Shoup: The cut where Murphy’s helming seems to’ve slipped into the writing. “It’s ’cause we do it like this” — delivered with the hiss of an extinguished cigarette — leads into a solo showcase for the “Billie Jean” groove. Honestly, any reading that brings a little fun is welcome; Butler only has the wounded-weirdo thing going on, so of course that’s how his empathy is expressed. About halfway through, Murphy gives up on irony and goes straight for nighttime, back-alley dread: the bass melody is picked up by a rumbly synth, and whispers swirl as the track ends unresolved.
[5]

Megan Harrington: The best thing about Arcade Fire’s prole rock is that it affords us an opportunity to look back at our fawning over Funeral and ask the question: What was I thinking? 
[1]

Katherine St Asaph: The midpoint of sludge-rock and disco is not a great place. Nor, somehow, a subtle one.
[5]

Alfred Soto: Don’t remind us.
[3]

Mallory O’Donnell: One of Pulp’s great 80’s disco jaunts re-envisioned by two whales trying to make love.
[3]