Product Description

'Funeral' is the debut album from Canadian five piece The Arcade Fire. Written and recorded at a time when close familymembers of the band had passed away, the album draws on these experiences and mixes them with a sound which has been compared to the likes of Echo & The Bunnymen, British Sea Power, and Gang Of Four.

Track Listing

1. Neighborhood 1 (Tunnels)
2. Neighborhood 2 (Laika)
3. Une annee sans lumiere
4. Neighborhood 3 (Power Cut)
5. Neighborhood 4 (Kettles)
6. Crown Of Love
7. Wake Up
8. Haiti
9. Rebellion (Lies)
10. In The Backseat

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #965 in Music
• Released on: 2005-02-28
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
"Wake Up," a track from, Funeral, the debut full-length by Montreal's Arcade Fire, builds from a midtempo strum into a "You Can't Hurry Love" gallop, which singer Win Butler interrupts with a yell: "You better look out below!" Somehow, none of this hits the ear as over-emotional. Throughout Funeral, the band augments its five-piece line-up with string sections, weaving a near-cinematic, folk-influenced chamber pop that slots in somewhere between Belle and Sebastian's delicacy and the robust classicism of '80s New Zealand bands such as the Chills and the Verlaines. The album drips with enough romanticism to rival Jeff Buckley's Grace, from the dreamscape of "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)" ("Meet me in the middle of the town... forget all we used to know") to the epic realism of "In the Backseat." One of the indie rock community's most beloved finds of 2004, Arcade Fire are poised to win over even more listeners. --Rickey Wright

Customer Reviews

Joyous sounds!!
There is no need to go into detail here. This album is a sensational masterpiece. I adore each and every track and have listened to it a trazillion times.

God bless this release. god bless it.

T R O N

A future classic
It's hard to describe this album as anything other than one of the best albums I have ever heard. Even if I was to be as harsh as possible with this album there is no way I can deny that 7 of the tracks on here are amazing and the other three are really great songs. There is nothing bad on here; nothing average, nothing even good, the worst song on here is great, while the best song is simply amazing.

It's hard to properly review this album without coming off as just being a complete fan-boy (which I am), or using the word amazing twenty thousand times but that's just the type of album this is, it's a masterpiece. It is one of the best albums of all time, and quite possibly the best album of the decade or the last 20 year. Okay if I don't get to the songs soon I'm just going to keep going in circles with this review so yeah songs...

The first four songs are simply musical bliss, each one of them is amazing in its own way. "7 Kettles" is a slight drop in quality and I do mean slight, there's just something about the album version that doesn't quite live up to the amazing live versions they've done. "Crown of Love" probably is (this opinion will probably change within an hour) the best song on the album, I'd go into length about why it's so amazing, breathtaking and everything but the best way to understand why this song is so good is to listen to it. If any song proves how amazing this band is within a five minute period it's "Crown of Love" (and if you need more proof get Neon Bible and listen to Intervention which is even better). Despite the fact that "Crown Of Love" sounds like a song that would be impossible to follow Arcade Fire somehow manage to do with "Wake Up"; even in ten years this song will probably still be their anthem. "Haiti" shows off Régine's vocals and despite the fact that a lot of people seem to dislike them I can't help but love them. "Haiti" goes straight into "Rebellion" which is probably one of their most accessible songs, it's a song that you can't help but love from first listen; it's catchy, memorable and just amazing. The album closes with another song which showcases (yes showcases, I like them a lot, no matter what people say, both Win and Régine are great vocalists) Régine's vocals and another thing the song showcases is the band's amazing use of strings and it just ends the album perfectly.

Another thing that makes this album so amazing is how far the band has come since their EP. Especially in terms of vocals (which sound even better on Neon Bible). One thing that has to be said about this album is that it is probably the worst debut album any band could make for the simple reason that it is near impossible to follow up and even more impossible to actually top it, but for anyone who has heard Neon Bible (And if you haven't, why not? It's an amazing album), they actually have somehow managed to follow it up.

In closing, even though I've used the word way too much I have to say that this album is amazing, the only word that is probably more suiting is perfect. In ten years time this will be one of those albums that people think of in the same breath as Dark Side of The Moon, London Calling, The Joshua Tree etc. a classic that everyone with an interest in music must own.

Shamanistic Shanties
2007's 'Neon Bible' was certainly an exciting event in the year's
musical calendar.
Two years earlier however the appearance of 'Funeral'
caught The Wolf's attention like a small light in a dark place.

There are artists in every decade whose ability to deliver music of exstatic, transformative quality sets them apart from the pack.

Arcade Fire's achievement here is both a labour of love and a manifesto.

In composition and design; performance and production; driving energy and restraint, these ten tracks communicate an ambiguous, yearning, stirring and wholly believable passion.

The integration of electric and accoustic instrumentation creates an extraordinarily dense, complex and varied soundworld.
Mr Butler and Ms Chassagne's vocal contributions are both powerful and plaintive.

There is something old and knowing in this strange music.
Empty rooms; dusty shelves; half-remembered promises; broken dreams.

Painfully personal. Ultimately uplifting. Quite a little wonder in fact.