Some things really are worth the wait. Fans of indie rock band Arcade Fire will be happy to hear that the long four year lag since the band released Neon Bible has been spent well. Their new album, The Suburbs, is an excellent third effort.

Consider Arcade Fire to be Canada’s apology for Nickelback. Few bands since Nirvana have been able to propel indie rock into the mainstream quite like Arcade Fire can. They are a cross between old and new: a mix of electronic and classical. Their instrumentation ranges from bass guitar to xylophone and French horn.

Most importantly, Arcade Fire records albums that are intended to be listened to as a whole rather than in parts. The Suburbs, like the band’s previous two albums, forms a loose, ongoing narrative. This sense can be felt in the seamless transitions and very short gap between each song on the album. It is as if we’re being told that we’re listening to a story continuing, not ending. There is also a sort of underlying tension that builds as the album progresses. As the music grows louder and quicker, it is as if the album is building up to an intense, emotional climax.

Band members Win and William Butler have claimed this album is based partly on their childhood growing up in suburban Texas. It makes sense, as the album perfectly touches on the boredom, frustration, and confusion felt by youngsters being brought up in suburbia. There is no character by name in this story, but there seems to be an unspoken protagonist. This protagonist is likely a teenager, sorting through the muck of discovering one’s identity amidst a contained world that has no unique identity.

This sense can be felt on the first track, The Suburbs. This same story is picked up later in Suburban War (and revisited in The Suburbs (Continued)). Songs that might go a bit off topic feel like drifts in and out of consciousness. Other songs like City With No Children and Sprawl portray a further sense of sad, vast emptiness.

The Suburbs is nowhere near as depressing as it might seem from the above description. Take for example what is perhaps the most praised song on the album Rococo. Rococo, which feels as light and free-spirited as the 18th-century art style it is named after. Few musicians today can balance joy and sadness this well.

The Suburbs might not be as movingly flawless as Funeral, but it certainly feels like the band’s most personal effort to date. It also shows their desire to make music, not just some commercial product. For Neon Bible, the band recorded the entire album in a church they bought and renovated. For The Suburbs, they made the unique decision of pressing each song on a record, then recording it back for the digital version of the album. Because of this, each song sounds like it would be if it were on vinyl. The band claims they wanted to have a true, physical representation of their effort. Few bands today show this passion for the art. Luckily, we have Arcade Fire. ~Ian Phillips