drewberinger Posted May 7, 2022 Share Posted May 7, 2022 This record is great and also EN>Reflektor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CeCeCe Posted May 7, 2022 Share Posted May 7, 2022 3 hours ago, Vega said: My god... it's their best album since The Suburbs, totally in love with it. It's a shame my brown pressing cracks and pops all the way through, gonna get a black, a blue and picture disc pressing the coming days, hopefully one of those will sound good. Have got the white version and it sounds good Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottheisel Posted May 7, 2022 Share Posted May 7, 2022 This record is really good. Arcade Fire have yet to really miss with me. (I thought Everything Now was great, and I think Reflektor is actually their best album.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek™ Posted May 7, 2022 Share Posted May 7, 2022 Glad to see the record get some love from early impressions here on VC. Reception seems to be lukewarm at best just about everywhere else. The biggest [most frequent] gripes I've read are around contrived lyrics – which aren't as bad as EN's worst ones, if you ask me – or how "boring" and "safe" the record sounds. I don't think it's overly experimental but it definitely does enough right to warrant repeat listens. I'm pretty happy with it. There's also a small crowd that is (very ironically) whining about how the band is now tailored for anthemic, arena dad rock. I imagine they're expecting the band to magically return to the same sound from 2004 and drop Funeral II. We'll just ignore the fact that a good chunk of active Arcade Fire listeners have probably become dads in the last 18 years. Alan P and achillesstand7 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted May 7, 2022 Share Posted May 7, 2022 I’m totally digging this album. Hit me at the right place at the right time. I just got a new job, it’s Spring and the sun is shining, and this album is a celebration. Also pumped that I got the record on release day and my first full listen was n my turntable. Derek™ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdomestic Posted May 8, 2022 Share Posted May 8, 2022 (edited) I really want to like this album but I'm one of the people turned off by some of the cringey lyrics. I'd say the weaker points for me are the beginning of "Rabbit Hole" (however Regine's part in the last third is amazing and an album highlight), "Race and Religion", and "End of the Empire IV". Best parts are the already released singles + "End of the Empire I-III", "WE" and "Age of Anxiety I". So basically two and a half songs on the album don't really do it for me. Otherwise, pretty solid. The music itself is really great and overall I'd still put WE ahead of Everything Now. I kinda feel like the first singles leaned more towards"classic" Arcade Fire while the more dancey elements from Everything Now and Reflektor are still alive and well in other songs. I'm not asking for Funeral II but I wish they would stop trying to write songs about the internet. Or at least come up with less clunky lyrics. Looking forward to seeing them on SNL tonight. Edited cause I got "WE" and part of "End of the Empire" mixed up. Edited May 8, 2022 by Subdomestic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dnl Posted May 8, 2022 Share Posted May 8, 2022 I would really like the story behind how the cursor on the cover made it through quality control brandy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vega Posted May 8, 2022 Author Share Posted May 8, 2022 1 hour ago, dnl said: I would really like the story behind how the cursor on the cover made it through quality control My brown copy has a cross cursor on it, it's not an accident. Probably about how the digital age comes in the way of connecting with a piece of art and a shared humanity, one of the themes AF has been talking about since Reflektor. kjkenney 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek™ Posted May 8, 2022 Share Posted May 8, 2022 That is such a reach though. It’s in completely different spots on the brown vs. blue variants, and extremely subtle as tiny “+” crosshair for the former. Also absent from the standard cover / other editions… as in, only visible on the variants featuring color-corrected album art. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottheisel Posted May 8, 2022 Share Posted May 8, 2022 Just picked this up today on white, it sounds great. Love the packaging too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timsimmons Posted May 9, 2022 Share Posted May 9, 2022 How would a cursor be captured in an image if it wasn’t intentional? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek™ Posted May 9, 2022 Share Posted May 9, 2022 Who knows. But why would this “theme” not be on the main album art - used on all streaming services - and reserved only for the variants? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottheisel Posted May 9, 2022 Share Posted May 9, 2022 7 hours ago, Derek™ said: Who knows. But why would this “theme” not be on the main album art - used on all streaming services - and reserved only for the variants? ….because it’s a variant? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drewberinger Posted May 9, 2022 Share Posted May 9, 2022 On 5/7/2022 at 5:01 PM, Derek™ said: Glad to see the record get some love from early impressions here on VC. Reception seems to be lukewarm at best just about everywhere else. The biggest [most frequent] gripes I've read are around contrived lyrics – which aren't as bad as EN's worst ones, if you ask me – or how "boring" and "safe" the record sounds. I don't think it's overly experimental but it definitely does enough right to warrant repeat listens. I'm pretty happy with it. There's also a small crowd that is (very ironically) whining about how the band is now tailored for anthemic, arena dad rock. I imagine they're expecting the band to magically return to the same sound from 2004 and drop Funeral II. We'll just ignore the fact that a good chunk of active Arcade Fire listeners have probably become dads in the last 18 years. Me - I’m dads Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drewberinger Posted May 9, 2022 Share Posted May 9, 2022 Probably has to do with the “I unsubscribe” lyric and sticker that comes in each package Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drewberinger Posted May 9, 2022 Share Posted May 9, 2022 But I also wouldn’t be surprised if it was an error lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek™ Posted May 9, 2022 Share Posted May 9, 2022 2 hours ago, scottheisel said: ….because it’s a variant? Big if true. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottheisel Posted May 9, 2022 Share Posted May 9, 2022 1 minute ago, Derek™ said: Big if true. I don’t know why this is hard to imagine. How many different cover variants were there for EN, anyway? At least a half-dozen or so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek™ Posted May 9, 2022 Share Posted May 9, 2022 38 minutes ago, scottheisel said: I don’t know why this is hard to imagine. How many different cover variants were there for EN, anyway? At least a half-dozen or so. Yeah, quite a few variants. Didn’t they feature the same art, just at a different time of day? I’m trying to picture how many of them had intentionally visible Photoshop tool-tips and I can’t seem to recall any. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timsimmons Posted May 9, 2022 Share Posted May 9, 2022 (edited) IDK how it is on a PC, but when you do a screen grab on a Mac, the cursor doesn’t appear in the shot. That’s the only way I could think of it accidentally appearing in the picture. I’m inclined to think it’s intentionally put in there. Edited May 9, 2022 by timsimmons Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdomestic Posted May 9, 2022 Share Posted May 9, 2022 (edited) 38 minutes ago, Derek™ said: Yeah, quite a few variants. Didn’t they feature the same art, just at a different time of day? I’m trying to picture how many of them had intentionally visible Photoshop tool-tips and I can’t seem to recall any. For EN, there were night/day variants with different coloured sleeves and vinyl and there were also variants with the "Everything Now" title written in different languages. Edited May 9, 2022 by Subdomestic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drewberinger Posted May 9, 2022 Share Posted May 9, 2022 I have the white variant of this record and my cover doesn’t have the cursor on it!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vega Posted May 9, 2022 Author Share Posted May 9, 2022 47 minutes ago, drewberinger said: I have the white variant of this record and my cover doesn’t have the cursor on it!!!!! Okay!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shelby Posted May 9, 2022 Share Posted May 9, 2022 Someone on Reddit emailed the store and got a reply back that it was intentional. It's in the original image on their site if you look closely. Oddly they modified the brown version to hide that cursor in the mockups though. It's kind of transparent white vs the black crosshairs on the final product. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shelby Posted May 9, 2022 Share Posted May 9, 2022 4 hours ago, scottheisel said: I don’t know why this is hard to imagine. How many different cover variants were there for EN, anyway? At least a half-dozen or so. I think its hard to imagine because it's so fucking dumb. I still don't believe it's intentional even if they say it is 😂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.