''Arcade Fire'' (known unofficially as ''Us Kids Know''
) is an
extended play
An extended play record, usually referred to as an EP, is a musical recording that contains more tracks than a single but fewer than an album or LP record. (EP) by the
indie rock
Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...
band
Arcade Fire
Arcade Fire is a Canadian indie rock band, consisting of husband and wife Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, alongside Richard Reed Parry, Tim Kingsbury and Jeremy Gara. The band's current touring line-up also includes former core member S ...
. The EP was recorded in
Maine
Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...
, United States, during the summer of 2002.
''Arcade Fire'' was re
mastered
Mastering, a form of audio post production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device (the master), the source from which all copies will be produced (via meth ...
and repackaged for its 2005 re-release by Merge Records for fans after they had "grown obsessed" with the band's debut album, ''
Funeral
A funeral is a ceremony connected with the final disposition of a corpse, such as a burial or cremation, with the attendant observances. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember and respect th ...
''. It was initially released in 2003 by the band at their shows and website, and then re-released in 2005 by Merge. It received positive reviews from music critics, although some of them noted that it was inferior to their debut album ''Funeral''. Lyrical themes of ''Arcade Fire'' consist of parents, suburbia, new love, dread, and drama. The EP's third track, "No Cars Go", was re-recorded for Arcade Fire's second full-length album, ''
Neon Bible
''Neon Bible'' is the second studio album by Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire. It was first released on March 5, 2007, in Europe and a day later in North America by Merge Records. Originally announced on December 16, 2006, through the band's ...
''. No Cars Go has been played at the majority of live shows since the EP release. Arcade Fire have also played other songs from the EP, live on every tour since, however, it has become less frequent. On their recent tours, they notably played "Headlights Look Like Diamonds" and "Vampire/Forest Fire".
Background and recording
In the summer of 2002, Arcade Fire briefly went to
Maine
Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...
to record the EP, since frontman
Win Butler
Edwin Farnham Butler III (born April 14, 1980) is an American-Canadian singer, songwriter, musician, and multi-instrumentalist. He co-founded the Montreal-based indie rock band Arcade Fire with his wife Régine Chassagne.
Early life
Butler was ...
's parents had recently moved there after his father got a land conservatory job.
The following year, the band self-released the EP on their website and at their shows.
Arcade Fire then met with
record label
A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...
s like
Alien8,
Absolutely Kosher
Absolutely may refer to:
* ''Absolutely'' (Boxer album), the second rock music album recorded by the band Boxer
* ''Absolutely'' (Madness album), the 1980 second album from the British ska band Madness
* ''Absolutely'' (ABC album), a comprehensi ...
, and
Merge Records
Merge Records is an independent record label based in Durham, North Carolina. It was founded in 1989 by Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan. It began as an outlet for music from their band Superchunk and music created by friends, and has expande ...
to release their debut album ''
Funeral
A funeral is a ceremony connected with the final disposition of a corpse, such as a burial or cremation, with the attendant observances. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember and respect th ...
''. The band eventually signed with Merge since frontman
Win Butler
Edwin Farnham Butler III (born April 14, 1980) is an American-Canadian singer, songwriter, musician, and multi-instrumentalist. He co-founded the Montreal-based indie rock band Arcade Fire with his wife Régine Chassagne.
Early life
Butler was ...
liked bands such as
Magnetic Fields
A magnetic field is a vector field that describes the magnetic influence on moving electric charges, electric currents, and magnetic materials. A moving charge in a magnetic field experiences a force perpendicular to its own velocity and to ...
and
Neutral Milk Hotel
Neutral Milk Hotel was an American band formed in Ruston, Louisiana, by musician Jeff Mangum. They were active from 1989 to 1998, and again from 2013 to 2015. The band's music featured a deliberately low-quality sound, influenced by indie rock ...
who had previously signed with them. Butler said he felt really comfortable with Merge, but denied that there was an "indie label bidding war". In 2004, Merge started to release the EP through their website, "in an attempt to sate the demand of an audience that had quickly grown obsessed with" ''Funeral'', according to
Pitchfork
A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves.
The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...
. The next year, Merge
remaster
Remaster refers to changing the quality of the sound or of the image, or both, of previously created recordings, either audiophonic, cinematic, or videographic. The terms digital remastering and digitally remastered are also used.
Mastering
A ...
ed and repackaged the EP for stores.
Composition
The opening track "Old Flame" has a "simple" melody and has a lyrical theme of new love.
Scott Reid of
Stylus Magazine
''Stylus Magazine'' was an American online music and film magazine, launched in 2002 and co-founded by Todd L. Burns. It featured long-form music journalism, four daily music reviews, movie reviews, podcasts, an MP3 blog, and a text blog.
Addi ...
opined that the song had the band
Mercury Rev
Mercury Rev is an American indie rock band formed in 1989 in Buffalo, New York.
Original personnel were Deserter's Songs
''Deserter's Songs'' is the fourth studio album by American rock band Mercury Rev, released in late September 1998. British music magazine ''NME'' named ''Deserter's Songs'' album of the year for 1998. Limited edition copies of the album came in ...
''".
The following track "I'm Sleeping in a Submarine" also has the "joy" of new love, and it features a chorus consisting of the phrase "A cage is a cage, is a cage, is a cage!"
"No Cars Go", the third track on the EP, was described by Reid as "easily a demo outtake on
he_Broken_Social_Scene_album.html" ;"title="Broken_Social_Scene.html" ;"title="he Broken Social Scene">he Broken Social Scene album">Broken_Social_Scene.html" ;"title="he Broken Social Scene">he Broken Social Scene album''You Forgot It in People'' ".
Allmusic wrote that the song, "with its driving accordion melody line and unified shouts, sounds like the blueprint for ''Funerals "Rebellion (Lies)"."
It later appeared reworked on Arcade Fire's second album, ''
Neon Bible
''Neon Bible'' is the second studio album by Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire. It was first released on March 5, 2007, in Europe and a day later in North America by Merge Records. Originally announced on December 16, 2006, through the band's ...
''.
Butler's wife
Régine Chassagne
Régine Alexandra Chassagne (; born 19 August 1976) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, musician, and multi-instrumentalist, and is a member of the band Arcade Fire. She is married to co-founder Win Butler.
Early life and career
Régine Alexandr ...
sings on the song "The Woodland National Anthem", and her vocals on the song can be compared to those of
Björk
Björk Guðmundsdóttir ( , ; born 21 November 1965), known mononymously as Björk, is an Icelandic singer, songwriter, composer, record producer, and actress. Noted for her distinct three-octave vocal range and eccentric persona, she has de ...
.
It is a
blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...
y song
with "campfire
percussion
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...
". The next track "My Heart is an Apple" features Butler's "soulful" vocals
and Chassagne's "childish" vocals.
Reid wrote that "Headlights Look Like Diamonds" "pretty much lifts the entire verse from
he Broken Social Scene song"Almost Crimes (Radio Kills Remix)"."
It features layers of sound continuously being added to the song while Butler sings. At the climax of the song, drums and multi-layered vocals come in, in what
Sputnikmusic
Sputnikmusic is an American music community website offering music criticism and music news alongside features commonly associated with wiki-style websites. The format of the website is unusual in that it includes both professional and amateur c ...
described as "frenzied chaos". The final track, "Vampire/Forest Fire" contains lyrical themes of "parents, suburbia, apathy, and pure, unadulterated emotion."
In the song, Butler's voice progressively grows louder while keyboards play during its chorus.
Pitchfork said the following of the songs: "while they infuse the songs with a dread and drama that reaches an adolescent intensity and bleeds into every track, they never retreat to a romanticized notion of childhood."
Reception
''Arcade Fire'' received positive reviews from critics. James Christopher Monger of Allmusic gave the EP three-and-a-half stars out of five, saying "While each of the seven tracks contained herein are fully realized, they are as unfocused as they are beautiful, resulting in an intangible, dreamlike atmosphere that reduces each cut – no matter how deep – down to a mere scratch." The website named "Old Flame", "No Cars Go", and "Vampire/Forest Fire" the highlights of the EP.
Stylus Magazine gave the EP a B+, and wrote that it "is a strong effort and one of the best 2003 releases everyone seemed to gloss over, but still doesn’t compare to the intense spectacle of their live show."
''Kludge'' magazine found the EP's staff ambiguous and not as "wildly unique" as the band's later work.
Sputnikmusic wrote of the EP "In order to listen to this properly, I'd say you need the band's first full length album in order to see quite where this led." The reviewer recommended ''Arcade Fire'' "for those who are already fans, and if you aren't (not an option I advise), this should be No. 2 on your shopping list. No prizes for guessing what No. 1 is."
Pitchfork gave the EP 6.8 out of 10, saying that it "finds the band still unsure of their capabilities". The music publication wrote that "the build-ups seem either less patient or less directed, the quick changes more deliberate, the structures more top-heavy, and the payoffs ultimately less rewarding
han ''Funeral'' Reviewer
Stephen Deusner Stephen M. Deusner is an American music critic and part-time record store clerk who lives in Bloomington, Indiana. A native of Tennessee, he has contributed to Pitchfork Media (including ''the Pitchfork 500''), ''Salon'', '' CMT'', ''American Songwr ...
did, however, say that "There are moments that not only hint at the heights of
'Funeral'' but scale such heights themselves."
Track listing
Personnel
The following people were involved in the making of ''Arcade Fire'':
*Myles Broscoe – Electric bass, guitar
*
Will Butler
William Pierce Butler (born October 6, 1982) is an American multi-instrumentalist and composer who is best known as a former member of the indie rock band Arcade Fire. He plays synthesizer, bass, guitar and percussion. He is known for his spon ...
–
upright bass
The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...
,
clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound.
Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...
,
Fender Rhodes
The Rhodes piano (also known as the Fender Rhodes piano) is an electric piano invented by Harold Rhodes, which became popular in the 1970s. Like a conventional piano, the Rhodes generates sound with keys and hammers, but instead of strings, th ...
,
stomp
Stomp may refer to:
*Stomp (strike), a downwards kick using the heel
Music and dance
* ''Stomp'' (album), by Big D and the Kids Table, 2013
*Stomp (jazz), a type of rhythmic jazz tune popular in the 1920s
*Stomp (theatrical show), a percussive ph ...
ing
*
Win Butler
Edwin Farnham Butler III (born April 14, 1980) is an American-Canadian singer, songwriter, musician, and multi-instrumentalist. He co-founded the Montreal-based indie rock band Arcade Fire with his wife Régine Chassagne.
Early life
Butler was ...
–
Banjo
The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...
, bass guitar, guitar, synthesizer,
tambourine
The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though ...
, vocals
*
Régine Chassagne
Régine Alexandra Chassagne (; born 19 August 1976) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, musician, and multi-instrumentalist, and is a member of the band Arcade Fire. She is married to co-founder Win Butler.
Early life and career
Régine Alexandr ...
–
Bird call
Bird vocalization includes both bird calls and bird songs. In non-technical use, bird songs are the bird sounds that are melodious to the human ear. In ornithology and birding, songs (relatively complex vocalizations) are distinguished by func ...
s, fender rhodes,
percussion
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...
, piano, synthesizer, vocals
*Nikki Conti — Alto saxophone
*Gregus Davenport –
French horn
The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...
*
Josh Deu
Josh Deu is the co-founder of Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire. He and Win Butler co-founded Arcade Fire in late 1999. Deu formally left the band in late 2003. He went on to co-found the Los Angeles-based animation and visual effects and anima ...
–
Insert Insert may refer to:
*Insert (advertising)
*Insert (composites)
*Insert (effects processing)
*Insert (filmmaking)
*Insert key on a computer keyboard, used to switch between insert mode and overtype mode
*Insert (molecular biology)
*Insert (SQL)
*Fi ...
,
vocals
Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...
*Tim Kyle – Electric guitar
*Dane Mills – Bass guitar, drums, stomping
*
Richard Reed Parry
Richard Reed Parry (born October 4, 1977) is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, best known as a core member of the Grammy Award-winning indie rock band Arcade Fire, where he plays a wide variety of instruments, often switching ...
– Bass guitar,
engineering
Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...
, electric guitar, percussion
*
Brendan Reed
Brendan Reed is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, artist, and film-maker from Williamsburg, Virginia known for his short films, recordings, compositions, and performances with numerous bands from Montreal, Quebec and Williamsburg, ...
–
Tap dancing
Tap dance is a form of dance characterized by using the sounds of tap shoes striking the floor as a form of percussion. Two major variations on tap dance exist: rhythm (jazz) tap and Broadway tap. Broadway tap focuses on dance; it is widely perfo ...
, drums, percussion, vocals
*Liza Rey –
Harp
The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orche ...
Charts
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arcade Fire
Arcade Fire albums
2003 debut EPs