The last Arcade Fire album, Reflektor<\/i>, was so exhaustive and exhausting that it appears to have made guitarist Will Butler need a break. I predicted as much in my review of that disc, saying that the album carries Arcade Fire\u2019s themes through to a logical conclusion and that they probably won\u2019t travel down that sonic road any more on their next album.<\/p>\n
Based on the younger Butler\u2019s first solo album, Policy<\/i>, a return to basics is in the cards. Either that, or Butler needed to play some basic garage pop-punk with hints of New Wave and only a few of the flourishes that pepper his band\u2019s albums. Without older brother\/singer Win Butler around, the younger dude blasts out a 27-minute, eight-song album that is all joy and doesn\u2019t easily lend itself to categorization.<\/p>\n
The jumpy pop beat of \u201cAnna\u201d is a delight and the album\u2019s best track, but the Stevie Wonder-meets-Talking Heads-meets-Parliament \u201cSomething\u2019s Coming\u201d is almost as successful, a bell-bottomed stew of warped static-y funk. \u201cWhat I Want\u201d is nervy post-punk-pop with a great lyric (\u201cIf you come and take my hand \/ I will buy you a pony \/ We can cook it for supper \/ I know a great recipe for pony macaroni\u201d). The lyrics are solid, sometimes trying to be weird and sometimes making good points, though they are nowhere near as \u201cImportant\u201d as Arcade Fire\u2019s.<\/p>\n
\u201cWitness\u201d is a jaunty skip of an indie pop song with added sax squeals and pounding piano that could have come from any decade. Meanwhile, \u201cFinish What I Started\u201d and \u201cSing To Me\u201d are quieter piano pieces; these, along with the gospel choir on a couple of songs, gives the album at least some gravity. Yet the project\u2019s short length and mashup of styles suggests Butler was simply flexing his songwriting and playing muscles, stretching out and having fun in ways he can\u2019t do with his band. <\/p>\n
Because of Butler\u2019s pedigree and experience, this disc avoids being ramshackle; it\u2019s a tight sound crafted to feel loose, and even if these aren\u2019t everlasting songs you\u2019ll want to return to repeatedly, their existence will brighten up your day. One wonders if Butler will bring this same sensibility to the table when Arcade Fire starts their next opus. Here\u2019s hoping.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":32318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[9602],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-44070","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-will-butler","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=44070"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=44070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}