ARCADE FIRE Funeral Merge Rough Trade

Lets hear it for the classics and, make no bones about it, Funeral, from Montreal's Arcade Fire, is already a classic. An album that swings and sways from intro to outro with elegant intensity and charismatic beauty, Funeral dazzles because its likes have not been heard in these parts in quite some time. It's hard to find your bearings on the first listen because the sights are so new and unexpected. By the time Neighbourhood No 2 is weaving its dreamy, delicately romantic spell for the third or fourth time, however, you've completely succumbed to what you hear and feel. During the making of the album, band members were mourning the deaths of several relatives and friends and this sense of loss, which gives way to eventual catharsis, sweeps through Funeral. Much of the agony and esctasy experienced comes from Win Butler's chilly images which spring from a child-like imagination to exert a ghostly effect on proceedings. They form the backdrop for the strangely joyful and unsettling Wake Up, and for the grand themes that propel the powerful, chaotic Crown of Love. If that wasn't enough, Butler's shrieks about God and rainstorms are wrapped in a passionate wash of hypnotic violins, faded pianos and psychedelic orchestration. Truly, an album for all seasons. www.arcadefire.com

Jim Carroll