Funeral (album)

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Funeral
Studio album by Arcade Fire
Released September 14, 2004 (2004-09-14)
Recorded August 2003 – early 2004 at the Hotel2Tango
Genre Baroque pop, indie rock
Length 48:12
Label Merge, Rough Trade
Producer Arcade Fire
Professional reviews
Arcade Fire chronology
Arcade Fire
(2003)		 Funeral
(2004)		 Neon Bible
(2007)
Singles from Funeral
  1. "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)"
    Released: June 20, 2004
  2. "Neighborhood #2 (Laïka)"
    Released: March 28, 2005
  3. "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)"
    Released: May 23, 2005
  4. "Rebellion (Lies)"
    Released: September 12, 2005
  5. "Wake Up"
    Released: November 14, 2005

Funeral is the debut full-length album by Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire, released on September 14, 2004 in North America by Merge Records and on February 28, 2005 in Europe by Rough Trade Records. It was given its title because several band members had recently lost members of their families: Régine Chassagne's grandmother died in June 2003, Win and William Butler's grandfather (swing musician Alvino Rey) in March 2004, and Richard Reed Parry's aunt in April 2004.[1]

Preliminary recordings for Funeral were made during the course of a week in August 2003 at the Hotel2Tango in Montreal, Quebec, and the recording was completed later that year.

The album produced 5 singles. The most successful, "Rebellion (Lies)", peaked at #19 on the UK Singles Chart. The album was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2005 for Best Alternative Music Album. It received wide critical acclaim and topped many year-end lists. It was ranked eighth in Bob Mersereau's 2007 book The Top 100 Canadian Albums, and #2 on Pitchfork's 200 Top Albums of the 2000s.[2]

Contents

[edit] Reception

Initial critical response to Funeral was very positive. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average score of 90, based on 30 reviews.[3] Allmusic reviewer James Christopher Monger gave the album a rating of four and a half stars out of five. He described it as "brave, empowering, and dusted with something that many of the indie-rock genre's more contrived acts desperately lack: an element of real danger."[4] Rock critic Robert Christgau gave the album an A-, saying that Funeral was "...too fond of drama, but aware of its small place in the big world, and usually beautiful."[5] Pitchfork Media ranked the album #2 on their Top 200 Albums of the 2000s list, after Radiohead's Kid A.[6]

Drowned in Sound also highly praised Funeral. Reviewer Jesus Chigley called the album "...empowering and hopeful and euphoric all at once", saying that "it says everything there is to say about mortality and it does it in 10 tracks."[7] Stylus's Josh Drimmer gave Funeral an A, calling it "celebratory, emotionally rich and life-affirming".[8] Dave Simpson of The Guardian called it "one of the year's best already, by a mile."[9] Zeth Lundy of PopMatters complimented Funeral on its eccentricity, calling it "bizarre at turns and recognizable elsewhere, equally beautiful and harrowing, theatrical and sincere, defying categorization while attempting to create new genres."[10]

[edit] Track listing

All songs written by Arcade Fire.

  1. "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)" – 4:48
  2. "Neighborhood #2 (Laïka)" – 3:31
  3. "Une année sans lumière" – 3:40
  4. "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)" – 5:12
  5. "Neighborhood #4 (7 Kettles)" – 4:49
  6. "Crown of Love" – 4:42
  7. "Wake Up" – 5:35
  8. "Haïti" – 4:07
  9. "Rebellion (Lies)" – 5:10
  10. "In the Backseat" – 6:20

Bonus disc (Japan only)

  1. "My Buddy" (Alvino Rey Orchestra)
  2. "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)" (August Session)
  3. "Brazil"
  4. "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)" (Live at the Great American Music Hall)

[edit] Personnel

[edit] Awards

  • #1 – Pitchfork's Top 50 Albums of 2004[11]
  • #45 – Pitchfork's Top 100 Albums of 2000-04[12]
  • #2 – Pitchfork's Top 200 Albums of the 2000s[13]
  • #6 – Village Voice's 2004 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll[14]
  • #11 – Stylus's Top 50 Albums of 2000-2005[15]
  • #10 - Stylus's Top 40 Albums of 2004[16]
  • #1 – Rate Your Music's Top 100 Albums of 2004[17]
  • #2 – Rate Your Music's Top 100 Albums of the 2000s[18]
  • #78 – Rate Your Music's Top 100 Albums of all time[19]
  • #2 – NME's 2005 Albums of the Year[20]
  • #6 - Blender Magazine's 100 Greatest Indie-Rock Albums Ever[21]
  • #8 - Planet Sound's 2005 Albums of the Year
  • #6 - Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 Best Albums of the Decade[22]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Moore, David (2004-09-13). "Funeral". http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/15201-funeral. Retrieved 2008-08-04. 
  2. ^ "Pitchfork: Staff Lists: The top 200 albums of the 2000s". http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/7710-the-top-200-albums-of-the-2000s-20-1/. 
  3. ^ "Arcade Fire:Funeral (2004): Reviews". Metacritic. CNET Networks, Inc. http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/arcadefire/funeral. Retrieved 2009-03-19. 
  4. ^ Monger, James Christopher. "Funeral". Allmusic. http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:tijxlfkescqi. Retrieved 2008-08-04. 
  5. ^ Christgau, Robert. "Funeral". http://robertchristgau.com/get_album.php?id=12704. Retrieved 2008-08-04. 
  6. ^ "Pitchfork: Staff Lists: The top 200 albums of the 2000s". http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/7710-the-top-200-albums-of-the-2000s-20-1/. 
  7. ^ Chigley, Jesus. "Arcade Fire:Funeral". Drowned in Sound. http://www.drownedinsound.com/articles/11169.html. Retrieved 2008-08-04. 
  8. ^ Drimmer, Josh. "Funeral". Stylus magazine. http://stylusmagazine.com/review.php?ID=2329. Retrieved 2008-08-04. 
  9. ^ Simpson, Dave (2005-02-05). "Arcade Fire, Funeral". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2005/feb/25/popandrock.shopping2. Retrieved 2008-08-04. 
  10. ^ Lundy, Zeth (2004-09-14). "The Arcade Fire: Funeral". PopMatters. http://popmatters.com/music/reviews/a/arcadefire-funeral.shtml. 
  11. ^ "Top 50 Albums of 2004". Pitchfork. http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/38230/Staff_List_Top_50_Albums_of_2004/page_1. Retrieved 2008-08-05. 
  12. ^ "Top 100 Albums of 2000-04". Pitchfork. http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/5956-the-top-100-albums-of-2000-04-part-one/6/. Retrieved 2008-08-05. 
  13. ^ "Top 200 Albums of the 2000s". Pitchfork. http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/7710-the-top-200-albums-of-the-2000s-20-1/2/. Retrieved 2009-10-02. 
  14. ^ "Metacritic:Best Albums of 2004". Metacritic. http://www.metacritic.com/music/bests/2004.shtml. Retrieved 2008-08-05. 
  15. ^ "The Top 50 Albums: 2000-2005". Stylus Magazine. http://stylusmagazine.com/articles/weekly_article/the-top-50-albums-2000-2005.htm. Retrieved 2008-08-05. 
  16. ^ "The Top 40 Albums of 2004". Stylus Magazine. http://stylusmagazine.com/articles/weekly_article/the-top-40-albums-of-2004.htm. Retrieved 2008-08-04. 
  17. ^ "Top 100 Albums of 2004". http://rateyourmusic.com/charts/top/album/2004. Retrieved 2008-08-05. 
  18. ^ "Top 100 Albums of 2000-2008". http://rateyourmusic.com/charts/top/album/2000s. Retrieved 2008-08-05. 
  19. ^ "Top 100 Albums of 2000-2008". http://rateyourmusic.com/charts/top/album/2000s. Retrieved 2008-08-05. 
  20. ^ "NME Albums of the Year 2005". http://rateyourmusic.com/list/John_K/nme_albums_of_the_year_2005/. Retrieved 2008-08-05. 
  21. ^ "100 Greatest Indie-Rock Albums Ever". Blender Magazine. http://www.blender.com/guide/articles.aspx?ID=2983. Retrieved 2008-08-05. 
  22. ^ "#6 Arcade Fire-Funeral" Rolling Stone's 100 Best Album of the Decade. 9 December 2009. Retrieved 10 December 2009.

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Arcade Fire
Win Butler · Régine Chassagne · Richard Reed Parry · William Butler · Tim Kingsbury · Sarah Neufeld · Jeremy Gara
Marika Anthony-Shaw · Colin Stetson · Owen Pallett · Kelly Pratt · Howard Bilerman · Brendan Reed · Myles Broscoe · Dane Mills
Studio albums
Funeral · Neon Bible
EPs
Singles
Related articles
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funeral_(album)"