Wednesday, December 08, 2010

The Apocalypse is Here

I am really enjoying listening to Arcade Fire's "The Suburbs." It's very creative melodically and lyrically. It runs pretty deep, which means it won't sell as well as the many lesser musical offerings today.

It's about the moments of dawning realization that your parents' American-dream-questing was both vain and destructive. Now there's a generation looking at the resultant rubble. This album is apocalyptic in that the apocalypse is already here.

This is my first listen, and I am listening, and at times nodding my head in agreement. Listen also to the Beatles' influence, especially on "Deep Blue."

First they built the road
Then they built the town
That's why we're still driving around and around
And all we see are kids in buses longing to be free

Endless suburbs stretched out thin and dead

Well yeah! The utter vanity of stuff and the material life and, for that matter, the banality of the bad news of the "prosperity gospel."