One of the seminal bands of the 00’s they may be, but a b-sides band Arcade Fire aren’t. During their short career so far they’ve released two overwhelmingly brilliant albums that both deserve to be hailed as true classics of the current decade – and others – and that may partially be because they focus all their energy and inspiration on the songs that actually end up on the said albums. Despite releasing several singles you can count their b-sides with one hand’s fingers and some of those are even songs performed by other artists (not covers by AF, genuinely different artists sharing the space). Same thing goes for more non-canonical releases: there’s almost no non-album non-single rarities lingering around.

That’s not stopping us from going through some most of them because there are some fine songs there.

Broken Window (Keep the Car Running single, 2007)

The Arcade Fire version of a krautrock jam. Hypnotizingly repeating musical loop, mixed with some of the band’s traditional skysoaring build-up-and-climax habits.

Cold Wind (Six Feet Under vol 2 OST, 2005)

When the band became randomly big with Funeral, they also found their way on a bit more random things, including the second soundtrack for the TV series Six Feet Under, from which Cold Wind was released as a promo single. Cold Wind is a brooding, melancholy piece that never really does the usual ArcadeFirean build-up routine. Instead, it keeps itself close to the ground – a songwriting choice that ultimately benefits the sad, autumnal tune.

Surf City Eastern Bloc (No Cars Go single, 2007)

This is the song that inspired this entire blog entry. It made a random appearance on my all-encompassing playlist, I gave it a listen and that one listen turned into what was practically an entire day’s worth of music listening spent repeating one single song. It’s one of those b-sides that were clearly relegated as a leftover simply because it had no place in the album – both the quality and the production involved are outstanding. The first three minutes of the six and a half minute song are a subtle, calm buildup, melancholy and tired slog. When the halfway border is passed, the song transforms completely. It becomes a triumphant, victorious march, building up all the time in the band’s trademark intensity as the instruments are backed by a countless-head choir, bellowing a vocal thunder somewhere between angels and Red Army choir. Spine-chillingly glorious. It may only be a b-side, but it is genuinely one of the band’s most amazing songs – a truly emotionally grabbing experience.

Wake Up (acoustic) (live session, ????)

Now famously featured in the trailer for Where the Wild Things Are, this more intimate version of the Funeral masterpiece is just as wonderful as its album counterpart. What it loses a bit in hair-raising epicness, it gains in its warmer, more personal touch.

Tags: Arcade Fire, mp3

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009 at 7:37 pm and is filed under Hidden treasures. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.