This Week's Music Choice: Arcade Fire's "The Suburbs"

Ever listen to an album over and over again until it's played out? I certainly have. Let's face it, it happens. Even if it's your favorite band of all time, at some point you're going to get sick of that song. Okay, maybe not sick, but you're certainly going to skip the song because you played it 200 times the first week of release. You just couldn't help it. Trust me, I understand. But, there are those albums that still remain fresh like the first day you bought it, no matter how many times you have played it. This is why I have chosen the latest release of Arcade Fire's "The Suburbs" as this week's musical choice.

Okay, I understand that it was released close to two months ago, but in my book that's kind of old. Old I say? Yes, because I constantly scour the internet for any new material from the bands I love and follow, to those rising artists. "The Suburbs," however, remains in heavy rotation because with each listen, it doesn't seem to get old at all. There's so much going on with this album. It is beautifully layered with a plethora of instruments that the more you listen to it, the more you gather in what it is that's being thrown at you. All this is accompanied by the husband and wife duo of Win Butler and Regine Chassagne's soothing, yet powerful vocals. The theme for the album is, you guessed it, about life in the suburbs. They sing about those lost connections, the wasted hours, the long drives, and how things can change throughout the course of one's childhood growing up. The feeling as an adult looking back and seeing how things were so different when you were a child. The old friends you had who now look at you in a different way as if you never existed. The suburbs can be a cheerful place, but it can also be dull.

I don't know if I have a favorite song off of this album because, honestly, they're all great stuff. These songs speak to me musically and lyrically. The tracks blend and mix together so well with one another that it can be this one big epic song. This album reminds me of the albums from the past where the artists wanted you to listen to it all in order because they intended it to be that way. This is what the Arcade Fire are so accustomed to do with their albums from the past as well. Not only are their songs "stand alone," but they make up the big picture of the album in whole. It's like a story with a beginning, middle, and end, with each song acting like a different chapter. All in all, "The Suburbs" is a fantastic album that, in my opinion, will never get old.

And now, a treat...