Arcade Fire have come to a point that every iconic band reaches eventually: they are a victim of their own success. They are one of the rare acts that are both commercially successful, adored by fans, and are always in the running when it comes to awards. So an album like Everything Now was inevitable. After so long being all things to all music lovers, Arcade Fire are finally running out of creative steam: the culmination of the wanderings that plagued much of their last album, Reflektor.
Where Reflektor was the sound of a band high on their own creative juices, with some many variations on style tricking the listener into thinking it was a coherent album like the bands previous efforts, Everything Now is merely just a collection of songs. Don't worry too much, some of those songs are excellent. The title track, and lead single, is an absolute beauty, as is the persistent groove of Signs of Life, and the self-referential scream of Creature Comfort. The problem is that instead of critiquing a culture that they abhor, like warnings on Neon Bible, and the atmosphere of the uncanny on The Suburbs, Arcade Fire have been assimilated into the current culture. The motive behind two versions of the same song called Infinite Content is more of a knowing wink than a damning indictment. It also doesn't help that the album is home to the two worse songs of the band's output so far: Peter Pan, and Chemistry. Both feel like half-finished B-Sides in which Win Butler's crooning is both desperate and a little bored.
Again, it's not all bad: apart from the excellent singles, there is still fun to be had with Electric Blue, and Put Your Money on Me has Butler at his most vital. Overall Everything Now is Arcade Fire's weakest effort, a collection of songs, but at least they are still too good to release an absolute stinker.
