Thursday, Dec. 09, 2010

Arcade Fire, "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)"

Arcade Fire specializes in big anthems that make you feel small. "Sprawl II" delivers just that: it's about living in wide-open suburbia, with cookie-cutter houses and big shopping malls that rise "like mountains beyond mountains" and give you the deadening feeling that you'll never escape this town. Cheery, huh? Except that in some weird, strange way, it is. "Sprawl II" is the song that every suburban teenager needs to hear. And it's the song that every former teenager can play to remember what being a teenager felt like.