When Arcade Fire used to be good

28th October 2013

London, Blackstock Rd

A couple of days after the Everythingnowness aftermath, a journey home to AF's fourth album released 4 years ago

What's the common denominator between Joan of Arc, Orpheus and pornography? One could find out the answer on Amazon and Itunes today from 8 a.m. The answer is tied in one single word: Reflektor. About one month ago, the indie band had launched a fantastic marketing buzz with the leaking of their single, named as their album. From the start, you knew Arcade Fire had hit the mark; the disco-inspired song takes you to a strange journey, through the looking-glass. The Sympathy for the Devilesque percussions, the combination of lyricism and rhythmic beats, the length of the song: it was Arcade Fire as you had never heard them before. 

  

What about the whole album then? Reflektor contains 13 songs divided into 2 CDs; its 1h25 mins had already been much written about, by dissatisfied journalists and blasé critics who were probably annoyed by the laudatory reviews of the album's 'accidental' leak on Youtube two days ago. To be fair, when I enjoy a musician's work, and if the material is good, I pay little attention to their ways of advertising or their interviews, for fear of changing my opinion on their artistic production. And this is maybe what music reviewers should do; stop arguing about the band's digital campaign and actually listen to the bloody record. 


True, there are some songs that might be too long and over-dramatic in their ambition. But Arcade Fire will always manage to surprise us: this Hawaï, Jamaican song-inspired album is radically different from the previous one. It veers towards the electro, rockabilly, glam-rock and reggae while the bewitching, immediately recogniseable voice of Win Butler maintains the continuity between Funeral, Neon Bible and The Suburbs. 'We Exist' and 'Here Comes the Nighttime' are more violent than expected, nevertheless establishing a close connection with The Suburbs' 'Month of May', but with more subtlety. 'You Already Know' 's use of bass made me ecstatic; with this song, Win Butler and Regine Chassagne explore a more consensual use of music: plain pop. Reflektor, though, is darker. It is about alientation, the Underworld, madness and deception. 

The best songs? 'Joan of Arc', 'It's Never Over', 'Afterlife', the paradoxically themed 'Awful Song', while 'Supersymmetry', previously used for the movie soundtrack of Her by Spike Jonze, beautifully closes the album on a nostalgic note. For someone who enjoys points of contact between the arts, alluding to the Orpheus myth naturally made sense because, despite what a blogger said, Reflektor tells a story. A story of lies, mirrors and gateways through other worlds. 


True, Reflektor might appear conceptual, psychedelic or over-elaborate for those who keep saying Funeral contains their best material, or to people whose first approach of the band was through this album. To my mind, its creation seemed completely logical following Arcade Fire's career path. Exploring alien sounds, attempting to produce originality, this is exactly what I'm looking for when listenning to a new record. 
It seems to me albums now function as companion pieces: Funeral and The Suburbs on the one hand, Neon Bible and Reflektor on the other. 
And this is why I cannot wait for a fifth one. 

"Ash and Ice", The Kills

On ne l'attendait plus. Contrairement à ce que son titre suggère, le 5e album studio des Kills n'est nullement synonyme d'inertie. Ash and Ice, c'est le phoenix qui renaît de ses cendres après une attente de pas moins de 5 années. Il faut dire que chacun était occupé à concrétiser ses projets personnels. VV avec Jack White, en solo, Seasick Steve. Hotel à l'écriture. Et puis il y a eu le drame: Jamie Hince blessé aux tendons, qui a perdu l'usage de son majeur gauche. Il aura fallu dompter sa frustration, puis de longues années de rééducation et plusieurs opérations pour ré-apprivoiser l'amour de sa vie, la Höfner 176 dont il se sert à contre-temps, comme une guitare rythmique. Apparemment, le jour où Jamie a pu poser ses doigts sur celle-ci pour composer ses nouvelles mélodies, Alison aurait fondu en larmes. 

En mars dernier, le puissant single "Doing it to Death" avait déjà été mis en ligne. On y apercevait le duo tout de noir vêtu à un enterrement, et pourtant rayonnant. Très léchée, la réalisation de ce clip montrait The Kills au sein d'une procession funèbre. Dans une reprise de la danse macabre médiévale, ceux-ci avaient pris beaucoup de plaisir à apprendre de nouvelles chorégraphies pendant trois jours, lors du tournage de la vidéo. Quant aux sonorités, c'est invariablement l'électro que cette chanson évoque, mêlée aux guitares chuintantes de Hince, tandis qu'Alison nous parle de burn-out émotionnel. Et de la petite mort qu'est l'orgasme. 

Et puis, quelques mois après, était sorti "Heart of a Dog". Ce nouveau single, plus difficile à apprécier, prend toute sa puissance après plusieurs écoutes. Au sein d'un clip beaucoup expérimental, on retrouve la passion que les Kills ont semblé nourrir pour la route et la danse sur le capot des voitures. 

Les boîtes à rythmes sont plus présentes que jamais. Pour cet album flamboyant, The Kills paraissent sortir des ténèbres pour aller vers la lumière. A bien des égards, ce 5e opus rappelle l'aspect dance de Midnight Boom. Plus expérimental que son prédécesseur Blood Pressures, un peu moins rock et avec moins d'aspérités, Ash and Ice s'achemine pourtant vers un retour aux sources chères à Jamie Hince : le blues et la folk. En témoignent les tenues de scène du duo, plus pop et moins sombres. Il en résulte un album surprenant. 

Aussi les entraînants "Hard Habit to Break", "Siberian Nights" et "Whirling Eye" qui clôt cet album d'une cinquantaine de minutes, sont-ils très efficaces. 

Mais c'est sans compter sur les ballades qui laissent la part belle à la voix de VV. Dans "Hum for Your Buzz", on alterne entre les accords âpres de Hince et le chant envoûtant de Mosshart. "On cherche l'inconnu" avait annoncé le groupe aux Inrocks en mai dernier. Déchirante de nostalgie et de simplicité, "That Love" constitue la pépite cachée du nouvel album, sa clef de voûte. Car c'est bien de blessures et d'intimité que traite Ash and Ice, ce qui fait sa force. Plus que jamais la complicité du couple dont-on-ne-sait-s'ils-sont-de-nouveau-ensemble fonctionne à merveille. Pour chaque chanson, ils composent tous les deux. Le thème de l'amour comme obsession y ici est omniprésent.  On ressent d'ailleurs parfaitement l'inspiration d'un de leurs groupes phares, le Velvet Underground. Plus assagi, le 5e album des Kills est aussi plus entêtant. Il comporte une intensité qui égale celle des EP précédents, quoique plus confidentielle et sereine. 

Ash and Ice n'est donc peut-être pas l'album le plus abouti des Kills, mais c'est de loin le plus émouvant. 

Tribute to the White Stripes: this love affair

A Gee, Barre de Faire et Pierrot Lunaire

But most obviously, to Roll the Dice and the rock on Clifton 4

Musée d'Orsay, Département de la documentation, automne 2011

Ayant abandonné mon poste de travail, surprise dans l'écriture de ce billet par ma boss, "maisLaure questcequevousfaîtes"

The news came like a blow. On February 2nd, around 9am Cape Town, addictively typing on Facebook, I discovered BdF's post (yes we are calling ourselves Big Sis and Lil' Bro, though this nickname'd be more appropriate for someone else now, the one I proudly made discover the Stripes 5 years ago). 

The White Stripes split up. 

Jack told me that he finally understood how people felt when The Beatles ended up their career. True, I thought. Somewhow, I found that I'd now always feel a pang when I would hear Lil' Jack calling me "Meggy Sue". Every single moment, each concert I went to, every time I sang "You're Pretty Good Looking for a Girl", scattered pieces of memory came back to me, as if they did not make sense anymore. My first thought was to tell myself I could not see them again on stage. Then, I tried to wonder if I would feel the same if the Dead Weather or The Raconteurs did the same. The answer came quite naturally: no, that is a big no. Why? Probably because those were not as mythical as the Stripes, or because they did not have this particular vibe. Also, because I mostly admire these bands for Benson and VV's performances. 

The Stripes was probably one of the first contemporary bands I fell in love with, if not THE first. I became interested in their music at the age of 15. I did not particularly enjoy "Seven Nation Army" (which is quite boring actually, especially when these damned sportsmen started to sing the riff in stadiums - people were hung for less than that in the past), but one day, the very-dear-to-me Kafka brought Elephant to my place. He left it there for a couple of days and pretended he had forgotten to take it back, but now I like to think he did it on purpose. I could not stop playing "It's True We Love One Another", imitated the guitar  riff on "Ball and Biscuit", had chills listening to Meg's voice on "In the Cold, Cold Night". I was obsessed, I was crazy about them. Later on, I would pay more attention to soft ballads like "You've Got Her in Your Pocket" or "I Want to Be the Boy to Warm Your Mother's Heart", on which Jack's voice is almost feminine. 

 

Then came De Stijl to my discography, that I had bought for peanuts, and still remains one of my favourite albums from them, along with Get Behind Me Satan, despite the hyperbolic reviews of critics for Elephant and White Blood Cells. I like the mix of violence and sweetness in this album. I cannot even count the number of times I listened to "Apple Blossom", "Truth Doesn't Make a Noise", "Your Southern Can is Mine" (that, unfortunately, I've never seen performed on stage), and tried to reproduce Meg's drumsticks rhythm on "Hello Operator" with pens on my desk. 

In October 2005, The Stripes came to tour France, just after Get Behind Me Satan's release. I still did not know them very well but, whatever, I saved all the money I had to buy tickets for Pierrot and I. We were young, we wanted to experience live music. I remember how excited I was while waiting their entrance, very close to the Zenith stage, Paris. The setting matched their colours: black, red and white, with the big apple on Meg's drum. Apparently, those are the Stripes' favourite colours because they are the first ones seen by babies as they experience vision. Another element I love about this band: their visual signature. 

I think they showed up at something like 9.20 pm. And what a show! Jack was all clad in black: top hat, large cloak, long cane, like a vampire coming out of the grave, giving you his most deadly screams to shake up the living. Meg had preferred to wear her traditional white top and red trousers, while she was playing barefeet. 

The shout I made on hearing "Ball and Biscuit"'s first notes! The Stripes is one of these rare bands that electrifies you as they play on stage. They are extremely professional, not very talkative, but you'll be sure not to waste your money since they actually DO NOT STOP playing. Most of their songs sound pretty different. It took me a while to enjoy "Apple Blossom" on the organ. But once I did, I could not stop loving it. This is why, every time I watch the famous Blackpool concert, I cannot help clapping my hands and drumming with my left foot, wishing I would be among the audience. 

The Stripes came back to Paris for a concert in 2007. But somehow, the magic had vanished. Maybe because A. did not want to go, like me, as close as possible to the stage, or maybe you could feel that something was going on. Jack had started other bands, he had various projets. Still, I enjoyed the gig. Once more, it was long, passionate and intense. 

As years passed, I was proud to make some of my best friends' discover one of my favourite bands and to share my passion. I flatter myself to have my brother introduced to rocknroll music through The Stripes, even though he came to prefer The Raconteurs (traitor!). A girl I hung out in highschool with, who rather listened to techno and electro, was thrilled to hear "Ball and Biscuit" for the first time. And in Cape Town, just as I learned about them splitting up, I felt immensely glad when R. that I had introduced to The Stripes, said he associated the band with me. This is possibly one of the most touching compliments I've ever had. 

With this intricacy of memories, friendships and moments, The Stripes became my best friends. They watched me growing up, from my 15 onwards, and shaped part of my musical tastes, because they embodied everything I liked about rock music: passion, violence, beats, LIFE, in a way. They helped me define which contemporary bands I would elect among my top favourites. 

It is hard for me to say which Stripes song I enjoy the most, because what I appreciate about them is their technical diversity. Most people would make the obvious link between Jack and "Seven Nation Army". I'm always a little annoyed when they do so, since it doesn't reflect The Stripes' variety at all. Jack can alternatively play garage rock ("Fell in Love with a Girl"), country ("Your Southern Can is Mine"), blues ("St James Infirmary"), traditional folk music ("St Andrews") or make you cry ("Jolene"). 

Also, most people would tell you Meg's a bad drummer. Know that Jack White never relies on chance. Meg provides this sweet, childish touch that is essential to the band, her naive playing reminding one of how kids start to play an instrument. The most intriguing dimension is that this formula actually works. In the Get Behind Me Satan album, the sounds are pure, almost free from ruggedness... Many criticised that Jack had abandoned his Telecaster to touch the soft keys of the piano. To my mind, this is what makes the album's wealth.

Having a band like The White Stripes on the international music stage, when it was and still is hard to discover anything but truly original, was certainly quite an experience. And, if Jack now is preparing his solo album release, I would like to thank him for everything he gave us through The Stripes' music, thus quoting his own words: 

"The White Stripes do not belong to Jack and Meg anymore. They belong to you now (...) The beauty of art and music is that it can last forever if people want it to"