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Neon Bible
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Neon Bible is the second studio album by Canadian indie band Arcade Fire. It was released on March 5, 2007 in Europe and March 6, 2007 in North America by Rough Trade and Merge, respectively.
Throughout the course of the album, the band employs a pipe organ, a hurdy gurdy, a military choir, and a full Hungarian orchestra, among others. Frontman Win Butler described the album as sounding "like standing by the ocean at night". Butler has stated in an interview that the album is not named after the John Kennedy Toole novel The Neon Bible and that the identical titles are purely coincidental.[2]
On January 19, 2007, the band announced the singles from the record. "Black Mirror" was the first single for the United States, whereas the first single for the United Kingdom was "Keep the Car Running". "Intervention" was the second single for the United Kingdom.[3] Both singles are currently available for download in MP3 form.[4] The third single was "No Cars Go" and was released on August 6, 2007 in the UK. [5]
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Neon Bible has been noted for some of its unique promotional schemes:
On December 28, 2006, the band allowed listeners to listen to their first single ("Intervention") by calling the number (866) NEON-BIBLE, extension number 7777.[6] The phone line is still active and after a short while playing the single "Black Mirror" it has returned to "Intervention". "Black Mirror" can also be heard by visiting the band's website.[7]
On January 7, 2007, the band revealed a variety of information through a bizarre YouTube video.[8] The video, which played a variety of sound clips from the upcoming album and featured "Juno-award winning guitarist Richard Reed Perry", gave the album's track listing, the date that the album would be released, and which label the band would be putting the album out on.
On February 2, 2007, the band released all the lyrics to Neon Bible on their website (which one can access by clicking the "lyrics" tab in the upper left corner of the page[9]). The band also included the text for "The Wolf and the Fox", a fable allegedly written by 17th century French poet Jean La Fontaine. If a user clicks on this poem, then an audio clip of a child reading it in French will be played.[10] The song "The Well and the Lighthouse" is loosely based around this fable.
On February 5, 2007, the band released a promotional pamphlet (fold across the three line/borders where the background changes from black to white) as a JPEG image on their website that included album-related imagery and much of the French and English text from "The Wolf and the Fox".[11]
In October 2007, Arcade Fire uploaded a website at http://www.beonlineb.com with the date October 6 on it. After speculation over what the website was about, including rumours of new material or a live streaming of a concert, it was eventually revealed to be a video for "Neon Bible", featuring Win Butler's face and hands, which you can interact with during the song.[12] "Neon Bible" is the first song on the album to have a music video.
Largely due to Régine Chassagne's heritage, the band has tried to raise support and awareness for the socio-economic problems in Haiti throughout their career. In December of 2006, they decided to support Haitian charity organization Partners in Health by releasing the song "Intervention" to iTunes and donating the proceeds.[13] However, they accidentally uploaded "Black Wave/Bad Vibrations", the track after "Intervention" on Neon Bible. While the song was quickly removed once the problem was discovered, file sharers quickly circulated it on various P2P networks. Thus, on December 26, 2006, "Black Wave/Bad Vibrations" became Neon Bible's first leaked track.[6]
| “ | The song that people have downloaded from the US side of iTunes is called "Black Wave/Bad Vibrations", and it is the next track on the record after "Intervention". I guess it is sort of charming that we can send the wrong song to the whole world with a click of a mouse... Oh well. | ” |
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—Win Butler, in his blog. |
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Neon Bible was leaked to the internet in its entirety roughly a month before its release. Anticipating the forthcoming leaks, the band jokingly claimed in December 2006 to have released over 100 tracks to MySpace under various band aliases and put the 11 most popular tracks on the record.[6]
| “ | We decided to try and get a couple of songs out to people before the record leaks... Which is inevitable as the Christmas cold, I can feel coming. But keep in mind that the record is very much meant to be heard as a whole. That is why we leaked over 100 songs on MySpace as fake band names over the last year and then made a compilation of the 11 most popular songs and called it Neon Bible! You will all hear the whole record in due time, and I am sure it will all make sense. | ” |
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—Win Butler, in an NME interview. |
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Compared to the band's debut, Funeral, Neon Bible has experienced breakthrough commercial success. During its first week, it debuted at #1 in both Canada and Ireland, and #2 in the United States, the United Kingdom and Portugal. In the United States, Neon Bible was out-charted only by the Notorious B.I.G.'s latest greatest hits compilation, and its #2 placement was a noticeable improvement from Funeral's charting of #131. In the United Kingdom, it was beaten by the Kaiser Chiefs' second album, Yours Truly, Angry Mob.[14] It was certified gold in Canada in March 2007.[15]
On July 10, 2007, the shortlist for the Polaris Music Prize was revealed. Neon Bible was announced as a finalist, alongside such other acts as The Besnard Lakes, Julie Doiron, and Joel Plaskett Emergency. However, Neon Bible lost out to Patrick Watson's Close to Paradise.[16][17][18] Neon Bible has been nominated for Best Alternative Album for the 50th Annual Grammy Awards. It was #4 in NME albums of the year, and 4th in Rolling Stones list of albums of the year.
- Regular CD
- Deluxe CD, in a paperboard clamshell box (which has a lenticular front cover) with two 32-page flip books designed by Tracy Maurice[1].
- Double LP, featuring the album on 3 sides of the vinyl and an etching on the 4th side. The album also comes with a code that allows purchasers to download the entire album in the MP3 format. Due to manufacturing delays, the vinyl's release was pushed back to May 8, 2007.
- "Black Mirror" – 4:13
- "Keep the Car Running" – 3:29
- "Neon Bible" – 2:16
- "Intervention" – 4:19
- "Black Wave/Bad Vibrations" – 3:57
- "Ocean of Noise" – 4:53
- "The Well and the Lighthouse" – 3:56
- "(Antichrist Television Blues)" – 5:10
- "Windowsill" – 4:16
- "No Cars Go" – 5:43
- "My Body Is a Cage" – 4:47
The song "No Cars Go" is a new recording featuring full orchestral arrangement of an earlier version on the band's self-titled EP from 2003.
- "Black Mirror" (North America – January 22, 2007)
- "Keep the Car Running" (UK – March 19, 2007; North America – May 8, 2007)
- "Intervention" (digital download – December 28, 2006; UK – May 21, 2007; US – July 10, 2007)
- "No Cars Go" (August 6, 2007)
| Year | Chart | Peak position |
|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Canada | 1 |
| 2007 | Ireland | 1 |
| 2007 | CMJ Radio 200 | 1 |
| 2007 | United States | 2 |
| 2007 | United Kingdom | 2 |
| 2007 | Portugal | 2 |
| 2007 | Norway | 3 |
| 2007 | Finland | 5 |
| 2007 | Iceland | 5 |
| 2007 | Australia | 7 |
| 2007 | France | 9[19] |
| 2007 | Germany | 11 |
| 2007 | Denmark | 11 |
| 2007 | Netherlands | 13 |
| 2007 | Spain | 14 |
| 2007 | Sweden | 16 |
| 2007 | New Zealand | 20 |
| 2007 | Switzerland | 23 |
| 2007 | Austria | 25 |
| Country | Certification | Sales/shipments |
|---|---|---|
| Canada | 1x Platinum[20] | 100,000 |
- ^ a b Album description page @ MergeRecords.com
- ^ http://www.avclub.com/content/node/59645/2
- ^ http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/page/news/40593-arcade-fire-announce-uk-single
- ^ http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/download/41416-the-arcade-fire-black-mirror-keep-the-car-running-mp3stream
- ^ NME News Archive: Arcade Fire "No Cars Go"
- ^ a b c http://www.nme.com/news/the-arcade-fire/25593
- ^ http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/page/news/40320-stream-arcade-fire-black-mirror
- ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61aaEq1rLxw
- ^ http://www.arcadefire.com/yope.html
- ^ http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/page/news/40936-arcade-fire-reveal-ineon-biblei-lyrics
- ^ http://downloads.pitchforkmedia.com/arcadefirepamphlet.jpg
- ^ BeOnlineB - Neon Bible video
- ^ http://www.pih.org/inforesources/news/arcade_fire_0107.html
- ^ http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/page/news/41729-arcade-fires-ineon-biblei-debuts-at-2
- ^ CRIA Gold and Platinum Certifications for March 2007
- ^ Arcade Fire, Feist on Polaris short list. Retrieved on July 10, 2007.
- ^ Feist, Fire get Polaris noms. Retrieved on July 11, 2007.
- ^ Arcade Fire, Feist And The Dears Among Polaris Nominees. Retrieved on July 11, 2007.
- ^ http://www.ifop.com/europe/sondages/topalb/alb0710.stm
- ^ http://www.cria.ca/gold/0307_g.php
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|---|---|
| Win Butler · Régine Chassagne · Richard Reed Parry · William Butler · Tim Kingsbury · Sarah Neufeld · Jeremy Gara Howard Bilerman · Josh Deu · Brendan Reed · Myles Broscoe · Dane Mills · Tim Kyle |
|
| Studio albums | Funeral · Neon Bible |
| EPs | Arcade Fire |
| Live albums | Live EP (Live at Fashion Rocks) |
| Singles | "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)" · "Neighborhood #2 (Laïka)" · "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)" · "Cold Wind" · "Rebellion (Lies)" · "Wake Up" · "Black Mirror" · "Keep the Car Running" · "Intervention" · "No Cars Go" |
| Associated artists | Owen Pallett |
| Related articles | Discography · Albums · Songs |