Arcade Fire

The Suburbs is by no means a bad album. Compared to Arcade Fire's past greatness, however, it is slightly disappointing.

The title track opens the album with a kick. Piano, drums, and acoustic guitar drive the song as lead singer Win Butler's distinctive, strained voice moves in and out of falsetto.

"Month Of May" represents the closest Arcade Fire will ever come to being punk. With its distorted guitar chords and pounding drums, it's a definite departure for the band, but it's a thrilling one.

The album stretches to over an hour in length, and an abundance of repetitive, bleak songs make it feel even longer. Cutting unremarkable tracks like "Wasted Hours" and "Deep Blue" could have worked wonders.

As a concept album, the lyrics on The Suburbs deal with, well, the suburbs. What starts out as a meditation on the impermanence of youth then moves through both positive and negative aspects throughout the record. "I need the darkness. Someone please cut the light!" Régine Chassagne sings on "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)," a perfectly pretty song hindered by its overly-literal lyrics.

The subject matter is interesting, but as with the music, it gets repetitive after a while. There are so many disparaging lines about "modern kids" that I was almost waiting for Butler to chastise them about being on his lawn.

A return to the same grandiose wonder of the band's previous efforts would have been preferable, but The Suburbs will have to do for now.