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CRITIC REVIEWS
100
WE is an album full of love. It’s full of heart, passion and soul. At just 40 minutes, it’s their most concise album, but not a second has been wasted.
100
Rebooting the euphoria of their 2004 debut, Funeral, WE is a big old blast of an album. One destined to lift the spirit, inflate the soul and get fans dancing giddily through the carnage of 2022.
100
The Canadian-American ensemble's sixth album is as musically and thematically ambitious as you'd expect, and it delivers in spades.
90
Set to the scale of Aladdin Sane meets Blackstar-era Bowie, the multi-chapter affair sees the onetime six-piece re-engaging with the cutting social commentary that has been a fixture since the beginning – The Suburbs recently taking on further prescience.
90
It’s clear that these songs have a real and sincere heart, designed to both stir and soothe the soul in one fell swoop.
83
Win Butler and Régine Chassagne’s songwriting is the most heartfelt it’s been in over a decade.
80
Lyrically rather than musicallly, WE has an endless cycle thought.
80
Ultimately ... WE is Arcade Fire’s best album since 2010’s The Suburbs. By circling back, they’re once again moving forward.
80
Like Spoon with Lucifer On The Sofa and Animal Collective with Time Skiffs, Arcade Fire have delivered a triumphant restatement of purpose that 2022 probably doesn't deserve but is brightened by all the same.
80
Crystallises just what makes these Canadians so great: when they hit the mark, there’s nobody to touch them.
80
While some might find the breadth of sounds overwhelming, others will be left craving more, given just how much is squeezed into only 40 minutes.
80
Open, welcoming, uplifting despite the darkness, there are few better companions for the apocalypse.
80
It may have taken a pandemic for it to happen, but We feels like a return to what they do best: writing epic, emotive songs that connect with audiences, whatever their size. It’s good to have them back.
80
Philosophically, they haven’t been so focussed since 2010’s ‘The Suburbs’, nor so musically dramatic since 2007’s ‘Neon Bible’.
80
It all feels very real and still weirdly hopeful. Something we may all look back on and realize how much it helped us all to understand, recognize and negotiate the complex emotions we are all dealing with today.
80
Beauty, bleakness and euphoria collide on this record of two halves.
80
Stronger, more robust and comfortable in their own skin, those questioning thoughts can firmly be cast aside. Arcade Fire are back, and they’re brilliant.
80
WE is not a perfect record by a long way but it is a record that curiously seems exactly suited to its time. From both a critical and emotional perspective, for the first time in many years Arcade Fire appear truly human again.
75
What differentiates WE from Everything Now is the strength of the surrounding songwriting. If ABBA-esque disco was a strange shoe fit for a band once well-beloved as the patron saints of modern indie rock, by returning to the stylings that defined their first decade together Arcade Fire have made their strongest record since The Suburbs.
72
This sixth album finds Arcade Fire at a crossroads, and it doesn’t give a real indication of what path they want to follow.
70
At its best ... WE reminds listeners what made this group the indie giants that they are and even makes a case that for all our irony-fuelled nihilism, a little earnestness, and perhaps even hope, aren’t always such a bad thing.
70
Nothing here quite scratches the itch of both emotional catharsis and rapturous splendour the way Arcade Fire's best songs do, but after a few initial attempts at capturing our collective panic and frustration, they have finally managed to pull it off by seeing themselves as part of the problem.
70
The band’s sixth album pivots back to a more melodic, sincere, and effortful style, attempting once again to find a genuine connection.
70
Economical hooks and ironic distance have been supplanted by a return to grandiose multi-part suites and painful sincerity.
70
While not as immediately accessible as the all-star run of their first three albums, WE will at least be a course-corrector for fans still alienated by Everything Now and the underrated Reflektor, a satisfying journey that realigns the band's heart and soul.
69
It’s uneven, uncertain, even uncharismatic in some places. It’s retreading old ground and shouting at clouds, but also genuine and at times beautiful in its crystalline synth-pop nostalgia.
60
The first AF album in five years has moments of dance-rock elation and heroic empathy, but can get a bit sleepy as they try to puzzle out our “age of anxiety.”
60
After a weak 2017 predecessor, the band’s new album returns to well-trodden territory. Its peevish lyrics are irritating, but it should avert a slide down festival bills.
52
WE asserts Arcade Fire’s dominance over their amorphous influencesphere as decisively as it asserts that they have very little of interest or import to say about pretty much anything.
50
Somehow, Arcade Fire have created an album that’s one half an exciting return to form and the other a continuation of their worst impulses with WE.
40
It’s perhaps no surprise after such a poorly received misfire that they should go here, and some of WE will trigger your sentimentality for this once great band, but ultimately it leaves a void. It’s not the end of the empire, and probably not the end of Arcade Fire, but it sounds like it should be.
40
If you've heard "The Lightning I-II," you've heard the only excitement WE has to offer.
Good comeback, but not enough
Arcade fire, the canadian indie rock band's new album is an acceptable comeback considering the mixed to negative reactons to their previous project "everything now". A simply good indie rock album consisting of nice and heart-warming slow-paced rock ballads. Well-produced and musically gorgeous.
But a good album is not enough for them
Recently and mostly after the release of everything now, arcade fire have been receiving a large amount of negative ... read more
My relationship with this album is so complicated, that I don't want to bother typing a review anymore. 30 minute vid coming soon
This is easily my longest review ever, so advance warning. TL;DR at the bottom.
Like this record, I’m going to split this review into two distinct halves.
First of all: the unbiased half. Written from the perspective of a music lover, and enjoyer of Arcade Fire’s music. I’m going to try to keep this as objective as possible, and not let my personal attachment get in the way too much.
So, the question remains: Is this album good?
Well, yes. In fact, it’s really good. ... read more
Arcade Fire - WE
Genre: Indie Rock
Country: Canada
Final Verdict: 56% (Pleasant Album)
Yearly Ranking: 319th / 441
Highlight: The Lightning II
Made me think of:
Wolf Alice
Interpol
Manchester Orchestra
With pertinent themes with clever and fantastical instrumentals, Arcade Fire continues to coast with dreary and rhythmic melodies and harmonies over uninteresting songwriting that you almost forget Win Butler is singing, but not Régine Chassagne. It’s constructed with linear focus instrumentally, but when it comes to the way subjects are delivered, your level of attention wanes. It’s disappointing; Arcade Fire has driven on more darkened paths, but their lively shift on ... read more
Contributions By
MrMagpie, OPENblinds, anztec, GoodCompany, Novell_sx, Citadelens, gbar25, Hungry_Potato, lemuriams, Toasterqueen12, riquitrefe, matteo, okcomputer12127, PlatsBecome a Donor
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Track List
| 1 | Age of Anxiety I 5:27 | 81 |
| 2 | Age of Anxiety II (Rabbit Hole) 6:41 | 78 |
| 3 | Prelude 0:30 | 56 |
| 4 | End of The Empire I-III 5:23 | 77 |
| 5 | End of the Empire IV (Sagittarius A*) 3:54 | 67 |
| 6 | The Lightning I 3:01 | 84 |
| 7 | The Lightning II 2:34 | 88 |
| 8 | Unconditional I (Lookout Kid) 4:33 | 73 |
| 9 | Unconditional II (Race and Religion) 4:20 feat. Peter Gabriel | 77 |
| 10 | WE 3:51 | 72 |
Total Length: 40 minutes
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1w
Fantano gave it a 4? I don’t think he’s enjoyed any arcade fire album since The Suburbs
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Added on: March 17, 2022