Artist Arcade Fire

Davida Nemeroff

Website
Arcade Fire

Arcade Fire quickly became a cause célèbre upon the release of its 2004 debut, Funeral, which raised expectations to nearly insurmountable heights for 2007’s Neon Bible, but the band met them with a dense, bleak, occasionally ponderous album that reaffirmed Arcade Fire as the most exciting band in the indie universe. The band followed this with last year’s The Suburbs, a sprawling album (16 tracks in 60 minutes) reportedly inspired by frontman Win Butler’s childhood in suburban Houston. As bloated as the concept and track listing sound, The Suburbs is arguably Arcade Fire’s most straightforward, rocking album yet—an argument validated by the album’s 2011 Album Of The Year Grammy win.

Updated 03/30/2011