Album review: Arcade Fire -- The Suburbs

THE Suburbs, Arcade Fire’s third full length album, sees the masters of huge, stadium-filling rock take a more guitar centred approach – and it’s welcomed.
Arcade Fire don’t really tend to stray from the "start off slow but grow into something huge" formula, and to be fair there is evidence of this in The Suburbs, but the songs here are songs – not in the same ilk as the garish and unlistenable Wake Up or No Cars Go from Neon Bible.
The Canadian crew, led by Win Butler, seem to have discovered a solid, tight new sound - and they're enjoying it.
The songs are upbeat, such as Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains), featuring the vocals of Win’s wife Regine Chassagne, which has a rocking piano riff Spoon would be proud of.
The stand-out song here is We Used to Wait, a sparkling number that kicks off with a Sparks-esque jarring piano and a rumbling bassline, and showcases Win Butler as an imposing and talented front man.
Empty Room is a violin and adrenaline-filled tour-de-force, and Month of May, although a tad cheesy, is just sheer rock ‘n’ roll.
Arcade Fire will continue to gain fans with their slightly-odd, quirky demeanour and ability to blow audiences away, but The Suburbs shows we now have a band capable of making songs, not bold, brash statements.