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Zero 7
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
Neon Bible
Universal acclaim
Based on 46 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 588 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: Merge
Release Date: 06 March 2007
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Indie, Rock
Summary
One of the most anticipated releases of 2007 is this second album from Montreal's Arcade Fire, the Win Butler- and Regine Chassagne-led band that won over bloggers, critics, and, ultimately, fans with their 2004 debut 'Funeral.'
Also By This Artist: Funeral
Also On The Web: Arcade Fire @ Merge Official Artist Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Observer Music Monthly
The Canadian septet are the greatest art rock group since Talking Heads stopped making sense.
Read Full Review >Stylus Magazine
While they’ve enlarged their presence on record, they’ve also peopled their songs with themes and accusations more resonant than Funeral’s mournfulness.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club)
Through Neon Bible, the band is seemingly sending a beacon to other reasonable people forced underground by the world's insanity. It's almost like a musical version of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.
Read Full Review >No Ripcord
The music is beautiful, spiritual, intense, fun and, as Lester Bangs once called the Clash, righteous.
Read Full Review >Trouser Press
A rewarding, resonant album, Neon Bible ranks among the best indie rock recordings of all time.
Read Full Review >Q Magazine
A magical kingdom of noise that's equal parts Disney's Fantasia and Echo & The Bunnymen's lavish Ocean Rain. [Apr 2007, p.107]
MSN Consumer Guide (Robert Christgau)
They thud rather than thunder. But what a loud and joyous thud it is.
Read Full Review >Hot Press
So, Funeral was by no means a fluke. The Arcade Fire are unquestionably the real deal. And to prove it they’ve now thrown in another contender for ‘best record of the decade’.
Read Full Review >Lost At Sea
Neon Bible may be a bold departure from the beloved Funeral, but the divergence is as inspired as the music itself.
Read Full Review >Filter
Truly, there isn't anything here that comes close to achieving the anthemic, stomp-along, bombast of Funeral's best works. But this is a different album, and a different Arcade Fire playing to their biggest strength: emoting. [#24, p.88]
Entertainment Weekly
In the bleakest songs, the polyphonic swirl of strings, horns, and voices... points toward transcendence.
Read Full Review >Spin
Neither a timid repeat nor a knee-jerk departure, the bigger, bolder Neon Bible better captures what Arcade Fire achieve live. [Mar 2007, p.85]
Blender
You can only discover fire once, though, so instead of a revolutionary blueprint, Neon Bible makes a triumphant clamor that's nearly as cathartic. [Apr 2007, p.109]
Delusions of Adequacy
It's an excellent album. It might be the best album released this year. And it proves that Funeral was not a fluke.
Read Full Review >Dusted Magazine
Neon Bible is so successful because it showcases big ambition without ignoring the small things.
Read Full Review >musicOMH.com
You could make a fair case for it not even being as good as Funeral – but my oh my, it's close.
Read Full Review >New Musical Express
A record with the bleak-yet-redemptive spirit of REM's 'Automatic For The People' and the musical magnificence of a 'Deserter's Songs'. But also a record that - as much as 'London Calling' or 'What's Going On' - holds a deep, dark, truthful Black Mirror up to our turbulent times.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe
Not quite of this world and not quite over the edge, these earthy, epic songs aren't meant to save us, only to supply some monumental crescendos and a wide-screen view on the way down.
Read Full Review >The New York Times
Arcade Fire mines classic U2 and Bruce Springsteen far better than the Killers recently did. And Arcade Fire didn’t lose its own voice in an attempt to sound bigger and grander. [5 Mar 2007]
Read Full Review >The Guardian
It's hard to think of another album that rocks in such an epic manner without sounding completely ridiculous.
Read Full Review >Under The Radar
Although Funeral is the better album, Neon Bible comes close enough without being a rehash. [#17, p.90]
Prefix Magazine
Some Funeral devotees may be disappointed by the more straightforward approach on Neon Bible, but their numbers will likely be easily replaced.
Read Full Review >Pitchfork
Although they've expanded their sound, the Arcade Fire's transition into extroversion isn't always smooth or graceful. Neon Bible is full of clunky lyrics, revealing Butler's tendency to overstate and sensationalize.
Read Full Review >ShakingThrough.net
In the end, underneath the strings and the percussion and the guitars, that is what The Arcade Fire has been about: making us want to do. That the band again achieves that goal, after changing its scope and refocusing tis sound, makes Neon Bible a success.
Read Full Review >All Music Guide
It's as decadent as it is tasty -- theatricality has never been a practice that the collective has shied away from -- but there's no denying the Arcade Fire's singular vision, even when it blurs a little.
Read Full Review >BBC collective
There are missteps... and the production is sometimes frustratingly muddy, but Neon Bible very nearly delivers on impossible expectations.
Read Full Review >Billboard
Bombast occasionally gets the better of the songwriting, but that's a small complaint on an album that gets nearly everything just right. [10 Mar 2007]
Sputnikmusic
It's about as good as Funeral and features some truly wonderful songs; although The Arcade Fire have certainly progressed, Neon Bible features everything that made them special in the first place, to even more epic proportions.
Read Full Review >Alternative Press
While devotees of Funeral... will surely enjoy Neon Bible, the album does have a decidedly different feel than its predecessor--mainly, there seems to be less of an emphasis on choruses. [Apr 2007, p.182]
Paste Magazine
It's a hard, emotional record--certainly a good one.... But, in truth, after the lavish escapism of Funeral, Neon Bible does feel like a less stratospheric accomplishment. [Mar 2007, p.60]
Hartford Courant
These 11 songs comprise an ambitious song cycle, and the songwriting on "Neon Bible" is stronger and more focused than it was on "Funeral."
Read Full Review >Dot Music
If "Neon Bible" doesn't quite dazzle as "Funeral" did, that's more a measure of the latter album's benchmark brilliance, rather than the inferiority of the former.
Read Full Review >Mojo
Here lies much of the album's magic: whatever ornate turns the music takes, at its heart is the primal stuff of great rock'n'roll. But God, is it big. [Apr 2007, p.94]
Austin Chronicle
Arcade Fire's Neon Bible stares down the sophomore jinx with a pissed-off preacher's penetrating gaze.
Read Full Review >cokemachineglow
A considerably more gothic affair than Funeral, a set that sometimes screams “overcompensation!”
Read Full Review >PopMatters
Despite a somewhat stifled mix, and the fact that Butler’s romanticism has been replaced by moments of bitterness, and in some instances petulance, what makes the new CD a worthy successor is what made us fall for this band in the first place: the music’s unflagging passion.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone
Like almost everything on Neon Bible... "No Cars Go" is excess with a point: We are drowning in the unspeakable and running out of air and fight. If only everything else on Neon Bible made that point with the same dynamic overkill.
Read Full Review >Slant Magazine
The music of Neon Bible is rarely anything less than uplifting. What the songs fail to do, though, is provide any real payoff to all of that uplift and passion.
Read Full Review >Tiny Mix Tapes
The songs are allowed to crack a few knuckles and stretch their legs before they do any heavy lifting, and you’ll find yourself appreciating their roots more as a result.
Read Full Review >Village Voice
There are growing pains here, there's doubt and sadness and confusion. And there's fear.
Read Full Review >Magnet
As is the risk with such serious-minded albums, a few songs err on the side of heavy-handedness... but Arcade Fire's raw passion and heartfelt ambition remain intact. [#75, p.90]
Uncut
While there is much here to admire, at its overblown worst Neon Bible is one of those records that takes itself too seriously to be taken seriously. [Apr 2007, p.90]
NOW Magazine
The biggest glitch is the production - the myriad elements sound cramped for space.... Too bad, cuz Butler's lyrics, which replace coming-of-age angst with poetic explorations of global anxiety, politics and an excoriation of celebrity culture, put Funeral to shame.
Read Full Review >Playlouder
This veers between quite good and bloody rubbish with only a couple of flashes of brilliance here or there.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 8.7 (out of 10) based on 588 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Tiago A. gave it a10:
Another great album from this wonderful band.
Michael H. gave it a9:
Absolutely beautiful and heart wrenching. The Arcade Fire manages to continue to get better with time, and Neon Bible is only the beginning I'm sure.
Shy A gave it a9:
But FUNERAL is better....but this is great album with some great songs:intervention,no cars go,windowsill.
Stefanie L gave it a10:
Probably one of the best albums ever. A huge variation of different Instruments, including a organ, make their music powerful and captivating. Moreover with "My Body is a cage" they wrote one of the most powerful and most beautiful songs ever.
Tania C. gave it an8:
I think it very good, with lovely tunes and songs that stick to your head for days
John B gave it a10:
At first listen, I thought this album fell well short of "Funeral". However, I gave it another go, and I found it to be astonishing. "Keep the Car Running" is the album's highlight; it's a driving, desperate song that builds and builds before reaching a solemn and surprisingly beautiful conclusion in its last verse. A brilliant song. "Intervention" is a song that is so over the top, it wouldn't work if the band didn't play it with complete conviction, what with its declarations of friendship and love dying with homes and such. But it works, and it works so well. It's a thrilling song. There are other fantastic songs on this album; keep an ear out for "Windowsill", "No Cars Go" and "The Well and the Lighthouse". Certainly don't listen to the haters, who offer so little in the way of actual criticism (if you're gonna rip something, at least go beyond "it's overrated, which is a total copout). It's a masterpiece.
Seth A. gave it a9:
This album has some of the best lyrics ever written. What passionate poetry, at its best!
