Capitalism works for me.

I definitely missed the train for the band Arcade Fire. I have the unfortunate habit of buying a lot of music at one time and slowly working my way through it, if at all. I have 31 days worth of music on my computer/ipod and I would say I am seriously acquainted with 85% of it.

I'm an American, overconsumption is what I do.

What I have been doing recently is making genius playlists on my itunes. If you don't know what this is then let me give you a quick tutorial. Apple/itunes has decided to create a "genius" program within itunes where you click on a song and the genius will create a playlist based on the music genome of your library.

Dictionary.com defines genome as, "a full set of chromosomes; all the inheritable traits of an organism."

Let's assume that your itunes library is an organism, genius finds other similar chromosomes and compiles them together.

Science hasn't been this fun since Bill Nye the Science guy!

Anyway, after I create a genius playlist, I discover songs within my own library! I know it seems ridiculous that one could find brand new songs in their own library, but like I said I'm American and Capitalism works for me.

Back to the original point, this is how I was reminded of Arcade Fire. I listened to their first album Funeral and enjoyed it. NPR then said some good things about their next album Neon Bible, and since I do whatever NPR tells me, I acquired it. (Don't worry how.) At first listen I was not really impressed, which may explain my apathy toward it for the next 2 years. That is not to say that there was not at least one stand out track for me. The song with the albums namesake is an interesting song. Neon Bible's lyrics are haunting. It reminds of a world that Faulkner would inhabit. They create these moods that seem to reek of immorality. Its like its on you, on your face, you want it off of you.

Well, recently I can't stop listening to the entire album. The songs have a serious preoccupation with faith and religion. But, not in the traditional sense. The lyricist seems to be exploring something, something that presumably, the church or religion in general is supposed to be able to answer but he finds it lacking.

Musically, they are, or were 2 years ago, on the cutting edge. I am interested to see the growth in this band. With lyrics as strong as these are, interesting music to back it up, they are a band that threatens to be around for a while.

And with Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber throwing out hits like candy at a parade, it is a breath of fresh air.

(To be clear, I love Lady GaGa and Ke$ha. Justin Bieber brings back memories of being uncool at 14 and I do not have the psychological strength to deal with those emotions.)

Check out this video, it is for their song Neon Bible, they perform it in a Elevator. If this doesn't strike your fancy about this band, than to be honest, nothing will.

Arcade Fire-Neon Bible (Elevator Performance)