Reflektor
Media type: Album
Artist: Arcade Fire
Year: 2013
Way back in my very first post, Reflektor was already listed among my favourite albums; a few days later, I posted a link to the superb ‘Afterlife’ clip. In the universe outside the direct glare of my ego, the album reached number one in a decent chunk of the Northern Hemisphere and appeared in numerous ‘Best of 2013’ lists. And of course, both ‘Afterlife’ and ‘Reflektor’ made it into the Triple J Hottest 100 this year, at positions 54 and 16 respectively. (It should not surprise you to learn that I voted for both of them.)
I’m not going to give you a long, joyous spiel about my appreciation of Reflektor. There’s no need to. Instead, I’d just like to point out – briefly, if I can manage it – two of the things that particularly endear this album to me.
One: it’s a double album that behaves exactly as a double album should. The whole thing is lyrically and thematically unified in a way that’s just delightful. On ‘Reflektor’, the protagonist and his beloved ‘fall in love/alone on a stage/in the Reflective Age’; later, on ‘Awful Sound (Oh Eurydice)’, Win Butler reminds us that ‘there’s a price to pay/for love in a Reflective Age’. This kind of cross-linking appears everywhere in Reflektor, and it reinforces its grand themes – love, oppression, mortality, rebellion – while keeping the music focused on the personal. But equally, the two sides of the album present two different takes on these themes, which is important. Disc 1 roars; Disc 2 whispers. Both are extremely effective, especially together.
And two: the sheer number of awesome moments on Reflektor is almost overwhelming. If you’ve waited for David Bowie’s cameo on ‘Reflektor’, and heard how seductively his voice partners with the song’s sax line, you’ll know what I mean. But the delicacy and layered instrumentation on the album’s closer, ‘Supersymmetry’, is just as wonderful, as Butler and his fellow vocalist (and spouse) Régine Chassagne match each other word-for-word. ‘Here Comes The Night Time’ dances between tempos and emotions with aplomb. ‘Afterlife’, as I’ve already mentioned, is haunting. And then there’s ‘It’s Never Over (Hey Orpheus)’, for which I have no words, except to say that it’s the most moving piece of music I’ve heard in years. (Alas, I can’t find you a link that doesn’t look like copyright infringement. But find it, somewhere. Please.)
Anyway. Reflektor is a magnificent work, and my paeans only add to a very large body of praise. Take a look at the clip for the title track, just below.
One other curious observation. A number of tracks on Reflektor have a certain synergy with the storyline of Catching Fire – look up the lyrics of ‘Reflektor’ if you’re not sure (or, even better, ‘Awful Sound (Oh Eurydice)’, which could be coming straight from the mouth of Peeta). This could just be a coincidence – imperilled love, repressive elites, and the shallowness of our ‘Reflective Age’ aren’t exactly new ideas – but it’s worth noting that Arcade Fire contributed to the soundtrack for the first Hunger Games film. In fact, they wrote Panem’s national anthem.
(Seriously. There’s a song on Reflektor called ‘Joan Of Arc’, about a girl on fire who gets turned into a figurehead. It has lyrics like ‘If you shoot you’d better hit your mark’. Seriously.)
Electric Blue Flower 