CheekyChicago

A sprawling mix of change, heartache, and nostalgia … Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs is actually The Wonder Years sans Fred Savage. Buoyed by synthesizers, guitars, frantic strings and rich, layered harmonies, Suburbs takes on a life of its own – each song a new narrator, describing the same scene with a different point of view (with amazingly clean production, to boot).

Take, for example, the nonsensical yet pointed lyrics of Rococo: “Let’s go downtown and talk to the modern kids /… Using big words that they don’t understand… They seem wild but they are so tame” compared with the serious undertone of City With No Children: “I feel like I’ve been living in / A city with no children in it / A garden left for ruin by a billionaire inside a private prison.”

With so many contrasting and interwoven stories (there are 16 tracks), it’s hard to tell if the ‘burbs are winning favor, or losing the fight. Lead vocalist Win Butler’s steady voice never wavers no matter what subject he’s tackling. What is present, however, is an overwhelming sense of leaving the past behind – and in the suburbs, that’s a relatively easy task (apparently, you just get in your car and go).

So while it may be a place where people run in the yards, wait in lines and wish on city lights instead of stars, one thing is certain: The Suburbs never sounded so good.