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Very few albums grab a feeling or place in time and pull it off really well.  With that said, even fewer bands really try to capture ideas or mentalities to share with a mass audience.  Somehow, Arcade Fire manage to capture life in the suburbs of America, alienation by a younger crowd and a rising up of a collective conscience better than many bands of the last decade.  On their third album, the band tackles that gray area that isn’t quite the city but isn’t really the countryside in The Suburbs.

I started listening to these guys a year or so ago and I have been impressed by their previous albums, the sheer musicianship of the band and power behind Win Butler’s vocals as he pounds out anthems for a new generation.  He manages to rally fans around ideals that don’t involve hatred, violence, drug use or copious amounts of lip gloss.  Plus, this band creates albums, not singles, albums that need to listened to in order to get a full story.

2004’s Funeral was a gigantic success with swirling sound and the hit “Wake Up”, 2007’s follow up Neon Bible was darker and more grown up, and on this new outing the band seems to have found their formula.  There are moments when the songs are quiet yet building to a larger idea and moments where there is desperation to be heard by somebody beyond the world of cut grass and garages.  Just because you live in the ‘burbs doesn’t mean you don’t dream of getting out and seeing the world.

Check out: “Ready to Start”, “Month of May”, “Modern Man”, “City with no Children” and “Suburban War”.  If you ever ‘borrowed’ your mom’s keys and took the van for a late night ride to see friends and dreamed of waging a battle against boredom at any cost, you will find a bit of solace in this record.  Skip the downloads, and buy this one.