The Arcade Fire: Neon Bible 7.3/10

I often make the mistake of equating epic with grand, which then quickly leads me to great. Now if this little formula were to be applied The Arcade Fire's new album, it would end up being a 15/10 or something totally ridiculous. This album is epic to the point were it becomes a parody of itself. Somehow this is both a strength and weakness of the album. Neon Bible is what happens, apparently, when The Arcade Fire go out of their neighborhood for the first time and see the world with naive eyes. It seems that they realized the world is bigger than the 5 blocks they comfortably inhabited on Funeral. Songs like Intervention and No Cars Go are where The Arcade Fire truly shine. Releasing a barrage of organs, horns, choirs, strings (the works folks, the works). No Cars Go is Sufjan-esque indeed, but it is unequivocally their own which is what is great about this band: their ability to repeatedly and successfully incorporate a wide variety of influences into something wholly unique.