Funeral

.: I've listened to The Arcade Fire's Funeral 3x in the past 24 hours now.
I dig on it. It's going to improve as I listen to it too-which is good, but lucky. Let me explain.
I read a lot about how TAF 'rocked'. Or produced 'the best rock album of the year' or shit like that.

OK-TAF...doesn't rock. Or at least, they do not rock as I understand rock. The Hot Snakes rock. The Secret Machines rock-or at least they come pretty close to rocking. But Sufjan Stevens-he does not rock. Autopilot Off-rock. Blood Brothers-would rock if they could write a song that didn't have 12 time signature changes in it. Broken Social Scene-not rock. Foo Fighters-rock. Andrew WK=ROCK. Crystal Method-not rock.
(I have tried to stay away from more extreme bands here. It is my opinion, of course, that Slipknot rocks. They are metal, though, and that's pretty much a prereq for a metal band. If you do not rock, you cannot be metal. One easy way to see if your metal band does not rock-do you have a keyboard player?)

Don't get me wrong-The Arcade Fire is GOOD.(so are all those other bands) They seem to have a style nailed, where you start a song quietly, and then crash in at the end with a cool hooky riff, or beat, or something that grabs and says 'listen to me again!'. I like that. I like hooks.

Which is why it was easy for me to discard my first listen to Funeral. I was expecting a rock album, and it did not rock-but it had songs that insisted I listen to them again. So even though I felt initially disappointed, I was able to recognize that this was based in what I thought this album should be-and not what it was. The difference meant that I was more open to the 2nd chance I gave Funeral, and more songs have begun to appeal to me.

However-and this may have something to do with it-I don't see myself going to see them play live tonight. I just don't see them producing a live experience that makes me want to stand up and jump around(which, is part of what I feel a rock album should do).

Now, I understand that my view here is a little narrow. I don't know that I'd call TAF anything but an alterna-rock band. They've got a touch of shoegazer, a definate Trail of Dead influence(I think, but less guitar oriented), and they certainly come out of a punk tradition(the one that The Talking Heads are best known for). I also recognize that this is all about my ego-but whofuckingcares?

Quirk-rock? I dunno. I like it. But anytime you have to put a modifier on the word 'rock' that means you're diluting the rock element of that sound.

So-enjoy The Arcade Fire. They're good.