While it might come as a shock to anyone who isn’t a young woman who frequents hipster bars in Montreal, a bombshell article released on Pitchfork has reported that multiple women have come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct against Arcade Fire frontman Win Butler. But just like the time that the very first article about Aziz Ansari came out on a weird blog and you had to rush to finish Master of None before the story gained real traction, you’ve probably got a day or two before these allegations coalesce into a complete and damning narrative. While we exist in this moral limbo, here’s the top 3 Arcade Fire albums to listen to right now really fast before it becomes officially problematic to do so.
Neon Bible
Drawing heavily from Americana influences, the Canadian band’s second studio album is also their shortest album, coming in at a brisk runtime of 47 minutes, making it the perfect last-minute listen before you will be heavily and understandably judged for listening to it a few weeks from now. Sure, the other members of the band didn’t do anything, but it’s not like he’s the band’s third accompanying violinist, you know what I mean? With radio stations already pulling their music and streaming services bound to be next, this album is definitely worth pilfering through your old stuff in your parents garage to find the CD in case you want to listen to it after today / tomorrow-ish. Which you won’t though, right?
Funeral
At almost 20 years old, Arcade Fire’s 2004 debut album might be too old for Win Butler, but it’s not too old to be included on this list. On the contrary, Funeral is consistently ranked by critics and Arcade Fire purists alike as the band’s best album ever, and stands right alongside Neon Bible as yet another modern classic to be cherished one more time before listening to it begins to cost you friends. With this piece of Canadian music history increasingly hard to come by on vinyl, it might be worth re-learning how to torrent to give a secret listen or two after today.
The Suburbs
Perhaps the band’s most critically and commercially successful album, The Suburbs is best known for winning a Grammy for Album of the Year. Somewhat longer than previous studio albums, The Suburbs comes in at a total runtime of just under 64 minutes, giving it a little more time to allow the guilt of what you’re doing to creep in. But as you begin to question your choices and feel nostalgic for a more innocent time gone-past and are forced to grow up and accept some of the people we once looked up to are not the people we thought they were, truly is no better soundtrack to reminisce to than The Suburbs.
