Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

Guardian“A satisfying sense of having accomplished what they set out to achieve...” The lyrics stop shaking their fist at the evils of modern life and revert back to childhood, a topic that informed the most celebrated songs from Funeral...

Dusted Magazine“A really good record...” Mostly I’m just inclined to enjoy The Suburbs as a really good piece of art, but I’m also struck by how aware it seems of all the buttons it’s pressing...

The Telegraph“The Suburbs delivers big tunes to die for...” The Suburbs has been patiently assembled. Three years in the making, with 16 tracks intricately interwoven by lyrical and musical motifs, it feels every inch the band’s grand statement...

The Independent“A more reflective, nostalgic bent...” Part of the band's appeal derives from its ability to balance music and emotions in poised equilibrium while grasping confidently for the future, so the misgivings are forever being swept aside by hope...

Uncut“Mature, melodic and elegant...” The Suburbs explores the badlands between safety and boredom. It’s nostalgic, with a sense of future dread. There is pain and pleasure, loss and hope. It feels like the anaesthetic is wearing off...

allmusic“Meticulously paced and conservatively grand...” It’s serious without being preachy, cynical without dissolving into apathy, and whimsical enough to keep both sentiments in line, and of all of their records, it may be the one that ages so well...

Pitchfork“A life-affirming message...” A generously paced collection of meditations on familial responsibility, private disappointments, and fleeting youth, much of which takes place in moving vehicles...

NME“Hugely important to The Suburb’s air of reverie is its surface calmess...” This record’s talk of youth and suburbia isn't an attempt to recreate the band they used to be, more a pointed, often painful reminder to themselves of the people they once were...

MusicOMH“A swift, elegant, engrossing and totally admirable rejoinder...” One of the 21st century's most intelligent and satisfying bands have once again set out their stall, and once again produced a work of inspired resonance, capturing truth after truth, in all its muddled, human realism...

Drowned In Sound“Not yet reviewed”