Howard Who?

The new Arcade Fire stuff sounds really great. The five tracks that I’ve heard are pretty stellar and varied. I highly doubt I won’t like the album. Saw them at Coachella two years ago and suddenly it seems like a good idea to go this year and see them again.

Intervention could be their new Wake Up, except I didn’t even like Wake Up. I saw what the song was trying to do, but I didn’t think it took that idea to another level. It was like a Weezer song but without any irony.

Intervention keeps the feeling of warmth and goodness yet has much more edge and a good melody to boot. It has some epic qualities, not least of which is bolstered by a barnstorming use of organ. I’m not talking about some squeeze box, but a real pipe organ that sounds like it’s flooding your senses.

My God, there’s immediately another great piece of music that springs to mind: Saint Saen’s “Organ” Symphony. Just listen to the two tracks side by side and see what you think. The organ comes in right at the transition between the third movement and fourth movements…kind of like Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony (edit: I mean there’s no organ in Beethoven, but just that the entrance of the fourth is a huge statement that comes out of the third movement). The orchestra cuts out and all you get is the biggest organ chord you’ve ever heard.

Intervention - Arcade Fire Buy

Third Symphony “Organ” last movement - Saint Saens Buy

This entry was posted on Friday, January 26th, 2007 at 7:46 am and is filed under Uncategorized, Classical Music, Pop Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.