The Neon Foible

I work for a fine, Guardian Media Award-winning magazine called Degrees North, which, by nature of it being a student publication, gives me license to write whatever the heck I like.

Last week the Editor called me and said "I need you to do a couple of CD reviews quickly because we go to print in a couple of days," so he emailed me a list and I met him the following day to pick up my choices. They were:

Fall Out Boy - Infinity On High
Arcade Fire - The Neon Bible

I chose the first because I love FOB, which equalled unchallenging, quick reviewing and a free CD I'd probably enjoy listening to. Score. The second, however, was a more unknown quantity.

People who know me know that I HATE art indie music because it's boring. But, my mate lostmoya played me a couple of tracks from Arcade Fire's last album, Funeral, and I thought they were ok. Not great, but ok.

So maybe, just maybe, The Neon Bible would open my eyes to something new? Maybe I'd be able to expand the boundaries of my musical tastes which, while relatively broad, don't extend into tuneless, whiney boredom - that's bagpipes and Morrissey out then.

Or maybe I was forgetting myself?

I was. During track six the album nearly actually killed me because I made the mistake of listening to it in my car on a motorway. Fortunately, I was startled as I drifted towards the hard shoulder on the way to the land of Nod, at which point I did the sensible thing and relieved it from the CD player. Then I got home, opened up my laptop, vented my acerbic honesty and pressed 'send'.

"To be honest mate, when I got it I thought 'oh ****' because it's been getting really positive press, but I couldn't be bothered to change it," is what the Editor said to me when I saw him a couple of days later. And he was right, as was brought to my attention the evening prior when I'd seen this in Sainsburys, the latest edition of Q. The cover loudly proclaimed 'YOU HAVE TO HEAR THIS ALBUM' next to a picture of, yes, Arcade Fire. Inside it got worse; they called it a 'modern classic' and gave it five stars. Five stars? Please.

Here's a quote from my review of said modern classic:

'Records like this remind me that being a good music reviewer is one of journalism’s real skills, because you have to consistently subject yourself to this kind of mind-numbing drivel and be constructive about it. I can’t.'

When I saw Q, for a moment I felt a bit stupid and slightly belittled for having clearly preferred the quirky American emo-pop over the supposedly more intelligent, more 'significant' offering from Arcade Fire; an album The Guardian called a 'thrilling enigma'.

But then I felt good. It's nice to have your own opinion, it's nice to be the apparently lone voice of reason amidst a cacophony of praise for blandness, and it's nice upsetting NME readers.

It's also nice to be entertained, but for anyone who disagrees there's a free promo copy of The Neon Bible going. I'm happy to post it.