Indie recordings at its finest. Though I find it ironic on how this band is meant to be so underground yet drilled its way up to be a modern band that everyone knows about on this site. Songs are grand in scale and in storytelling.

Effin b-e-a-utiful from start to finish.

Wow, just wow! Speechless!

Hipsters are allowed to like this album, but not "The Wall". This is just as bombastic and whiny.. I don't get it!

And more on topic: I like the album, it's well-crafted, but only few songs really grabbed me. To me, the album sounds much more forced than the aforementioned "The Wall". It's still good music though.

Emotional but in the end uplifting. 'Rebellion (Lies', 'Wake Up,' and 'Crown of Love', being perfect examples of these.

I find this record slightly uneven in the first half. Regardless, this album caused not just a sea change in returning proper indie rock to a more critically and commercially successful force but also in a return to earnest and romantic emotional bombast.

Looks like there is some conspiracy about this band here on besteveralbums... Абсолютно вторичное, неинтересное, необязательное музло, которое вообще непонятно чего делает в первой десятке.

a beautifully decorated peace of nothing

A bit weepy, traverses emo territory, overblown, pretentious, but, of course, beautiful in several spots. Prefer Neon Bible.

Amazing album. Of Arcade Fire's three albums, I would say this is their most accessible and easy to get from the start. I actually heard this album after The Suburbs (which I gave a worse rating than this at 95, but I think I probably like more). Reason for that is it's harder to get from first listen but over time it's more rewarding imo and works great as a concept album.

I would say over the years Win Butler's voice has definitely gotten better and more powerful. There's some moments here like Neighborhood #1 while a great, emotional song, his voice sounds a little weak. But there are other great moments on this album vocally, Laika, Neighborhood 3, Wake Up and Rebellion are great. While his voice is weak in some spots, it is so emotional in others and that really helps carry the song. Some of their lyrics are so powerful too like in Wake Up, one of the lines is "Our bodies get bigger but our hearts get torn up. We're just a million little gods causin rain storms turning every good thing to rust, I guess we'll just have to adjust." I would say this is more of a musical album than lyrical although the lyrics are great.

I like the elements of them using French in their songs too and on Une Annee Sans Lumiere, Win and Regine singing together in French is pretty cool and it's a very calming song.

They have a lot of references to kids, growing up, neighborhoods, etc. on this album and those are interesting motifs to move along the album and are much more fully realized on The Suburbs, and how it is almost like a storyline progressing. The same can be said here, as Neighborhood 1 sounds like the beginning, Neighborhood 2 and 3 sound like adolescence and 4 sounds like adulthood. Neighborhood 1 is an amazing opening for a new band. It almost sounds like you're being placed in the desolate snow filled town that the two kids are meeting each other. It is beautiful.

In the Backseat at the end where the music picks up is a phenomenal end to an album to and Arcade Fire does a really good job making you feel like you're in where the characters are. Neighborhood 3 is sort of fast and angsty, Crown of Love is sort of longing and so on.

This is easily one of the best albums of the 2000s. It's a good start to show what Arcade Fire is about thematically and musically. Their writing over the years has gotten better and more powerful, culminating with The Suburbs which to me is one of the best albums of all time. I was born in 89 so too young for Nevermind and although I've heard OK Computer, this is the defining album for me and I think this will be the one Generation Y kids will be looking at as one of the seminal albums. But Funeral is a good place to start and stands the test of time.