On Arcade Fire’s second album, 2007’s Neon Bible, the band got serious, with heavy, ponderous songs about the environment, the media and religion. It’s therefore something of a relief when the opening bars of the first and title track on this new album. The Suburbs, reveal a lighter touch, with a country shuffle that’s only slightly uneasy. The song’s winsome beat announces a new restraint that permeates much of the album. The band, which rose from the ranks of the achingly hip to stadium heroes in two albums flat, is not known for restraint. Rather, big, blood’n’thunder numbers belted out like lives depend on it by a veritable village is the traditional stock in trade. Think Ian Paisley and the E Street Band and you’re somewhere close..
