Know Arcade Fire chapter and verse

You'd think that recording one of the decade's greatest rock albums, praise from David Bowie, gracing the cover of Time magazine's Canadian edition, opening for U2 and touring the world would make Arcade Fire happy. But Neon Bible, their sophomore album due out March 6, belies this notion. Chock-full of paranoia, despair, loss, betrayal, war, religious demagoguery, media malfeasance and apocalyptic visions, Neon Bible could be the darkest modern rock LP since Radiohead disappeared into their cave (it's even more depressing than Arcade Fire's 2004 debut, Funeral). But don't worry, that's a good thing. \nArcade Fire works in angst like Van Gogh worked in oil paint -- piling it on, building it up in layers, not so much brushing it on as sculpting it toward an ultimate vision. Indeed, this deliberateness, I suspect, will become the heart of the inevitable debate over how well Neon Bible compares to Funeral.\nFirst, here's what's the same: Arcade Fire remains a big, ambitious, heavy, baroque, anachronistic, orchestral chamber pop operation -- traditionally nonrock instruments make their appearance (most notably violins and organ), oblique references abound, lyrics slip into French and Win Butler sings his tortured heart out. In another review two weeks ago, I called Arcade Fire the opera of indie rock -- play either of their albums at neighbor-alienating volume and you'll hear what I mean. \nBut Neon Bible is more cohesive than Funeral -- the various song elements often rest on a backbone of mid-tempo percussion and guitar strums, which gradually ramp up to an explosive conclusion (likewise, the album itself builds to a climax in "No Cars Go," a turbo-charged version of the song from Arcade Fire's self-titled EP). There are neither so much the stomping anthems like "Rebellion (Lies)" nor the sweet ballads like "In The Backseat." And, strikingly, Butler's better-half, Regine Chassagne, is relegated to background vocals. In all, this means that the album is less immediately appealing -- but it also has a greater emotional payoff when taken as a whole. \nAnd, besides, there are many individual tunes other than "No Cars Go" that'll get your heart beating -- a swinging ode to paranoia ("Keep The Car Running"), a soaring condemnation of mindless obedience ("Intervention"), a hard-charging attack on stage parenting ("Antichrist Television Blues") and "Windowsill," which provides plenty of good reasons to say to hell with this world and join Radiohead in their cave.