“Black Mirror”
from the album Neon Bible
2007
iTunes
MP3 – “Black Mirror” [right-click/save-as]
Only a couple of times every half-generation or so are rock fans treated to music from a band so sure and firm and complete that they sound only like themselves even as each song introduces new aspects of their sound. After just one CD — 2004’s Funeral — the Arcade Fire appeared to be one of these bands. This song, from their much-anticipated second release Neon Bible (due out in early March), suggests this Montreal septet is the real thing indeed.
Over an ominous opening rumble, acoustic guitars strum a couple of insistent, unresolved chords and you’re immediately intrigued. Win Butler then lends his distinctive warble to a solid, descending melody as a vague, indescribable sound roils around him and then, check it out: a piano, somewhat distantly, pounds out four ascending (again unresolved) notes, withdraws, returning to underpin the abbreviated chorus (just the words “black mirror” repeated). See, one of the things this band does so well — and uniquely — is use their instruments orchestrally, employing recurring themes as motifs that are not simply the melody the singer is singing.
Another asset on display is how Arcade Fire songs can effortlessly spin out in unanticipated directions. Listen, for instance, to the dramatic turn taken at 1:20 — Butler’s voice leaps up into that “I may be coming unhinged” range while dynamic chords forge into surprising new territory before linking at 1:37 back to the chorus (1-2-3-4! goes the piano). Don’t miss another turn at 2:17, when Butler sings an emphatic French phrase over an increasingly frenetic but still indescribable musical background; and then, ahh!, the offhandedly marvelous theme the strings play from 3:12 (announced by that great dissonant trill at 3:11), leading the song back into the ominous rumble we started with.