An Arcade Fire Advent Devotional

Journey through Advent with Arcade Fire!

It's become something of a tradition for people to walk through the season of Advent (the 4 weeks leading up to Christmas day) by reading an "Advent devotional", that is, a set of readings meditating on the themes of Advent: waiting, preparing, hoping, obeying, the coming of Christ as a child, the second coming of Christ, light, darkness, and the salvation of the Lord.

A couple of years ago I put together my own Advent series of readings of sorts based around a rather unconventional subject: the rock band Arcade Fire. It was more of a serious effort than you might think at first glance. There are three main articles (an ANTI-Advent reflection and then a two part Advent reflection) and then two other articles consisting of lists of Arcade Fire songs dwelling on the themes of Advent (as I perceive them). These Advent focused articles were the culmination of a long series on the songs of Arcade Fire. For a list of those articles please check the end of this article.

It might sound strange to take the work of a "secular" rock band as a jumping off point to think about the coming of Christ, but I assure you Arcade Fire has given us a lot to think about in their work. If you can take something from these articles and if they can help you to journey through Advent or to learn a little of what Advent is about then they will have accomplished the task I set out to do.

Here now are the articles:
"I need the darkness someone please cut the lights!": A Very Special Arcade Fire ANTI-Advent Reflection

"We used to wait": A Very Special Arcade Fire Advent Reflection (Part 1)

"Sleeping is giving in": A Very Special Arcade Fire Advent Reflection (Part 2)

An Index: Arcade Fire Songs For Advent (on the themes of waiting, preparing, arriving, and the light

An Index: Arcade Fire Songs Mentioning Light, Darkness, Mirrors, and Reflections
Continual Themes and Subjects in the Work of Arcade Fire

Let's Not Think About the Election! Let's Listen to Music!—Songs of Protest, Satire, & the Apocalypse

The current political season leaves bloggers like me with a dilemma. In what can only be viewed as the most polemicized election of our lifetime(s) do we even bother with bothering people about our piddly little blog posts? Personally, I have a few articles I've been working hard at for the past several weeks, but at the moment I hardly see any point in adding to the noise. I'd like my thoughts to actually get heard and considered, so why waste the effort of putting out another article when people's psyches are already over-saturated with the latest scandal or with attempting to sift through what is fact and fiction in the media's neverending truth manipulation game? 

More than anything, I believe people are increasingly weary of the whole thing. We are tired of fighting each other. Tired of the lies and cover ups and conspicuous tactics of both sides. We've all been spun by the media's spin and I believe if we slow down enough we'll become horrified that often we are the ones doing the spinning ourselves. Having been spun we continue on spinning others... That is, if we are wounded as a nation, a lot of the wounds are self-inflicted...

With all this in mind, I have decided to hold off on my "important" articles for a couple of weeks (or more....We'll see where everything settles in the aftermath of the election). Instead, as a blogger, with something of a public forum for propagating the importance of art and faith in our culture, I am asking us to slow down and listen and ponder and take in some truth, beauty, and goodness. So...

Let's not think about the election! Let's listen to music! 

This is a sincere call. If you happen to find yourself reading this article, please take a few moments to stop what you're doing and click play on the tracks below. I have curated a play list worthy of your consideration. May they work their way into your soul, embed themselves into your mind, and stir your strength into edifying action.

Today's list (Part 1 of 3):
Songs of Protest, Satire, & the Apocalypse
"Listen to the words of the prophet..." These are finger-pointing songs. These are songs that hurt us to our core. They catch us at our most hypocritical. At first we think they are singing about Someone Else, but if we keep on listening we come to find that no, they are singing about us too. Yes, we are culpable for the same crimes we accused others of committing. It would seem some repentance is in order.

But these are also songs that make us laugh...uncomfortably so...at the horror of it all. Sometimes a good bellyache can help us see the world differently and in seeing the world differently we begin to live differently and thus a laugh is never just a laugh. Sometimes a joke can change the world. 

Today's list includes: Bob Dylan, Larry Norman, Keith Green, Randy Newman, Arcade Fire, and Steve Taylor.

PostConsumer Culture Club #4—The Week of September 20-September 26

PostConsumer Culture Club: A list of everything we at PostConsumer Reports have been digesting this week, with brief commentary. Hopefully, we can culture something good in you. Happy PostConsuming!

Here is what we watched the week of September 20 through September 26.

Film Review: The Reflektor Tapes—Arcade Fire's Inversion of U2's Rattle and Hum

CULTURAL APPROPRIATION?
In the middle of Arcade Fire and Kahlil Joseph's new concert documentary The Reflektor Tapes I realized Arcade Fire was differentiating themselves greatly from U2, the biggest self-proclaimed Biggest Band in the World, even if the latter band grows increasingly irrelevant as the years go on. 

Just For Fun: Two memes featuring Mister Rogers and Will Butler

Happy almost New Year everyone (and happy 6th day of Christmas!).

Here are a couple of memes I put together, JFF:

And in case you missed them before, here are a couple of memes from the time I tried to turn myself into a meme:

You can view all of those memes here:

Making Myself Into a Meme

"Sleeping is Giving In": A Very Special Arcade Fire Advent Reflection (Part 2)

But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

+++Ephesians 5:13-14 (ESV)

Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. 

+++Romans 13:11-12 (ESV)

The Scripture readings during the season of Advent typically focus on two people who integral in readying the earth for the coming of Christ: Mary, his mother and John the Baptist, his cousin. Much can and has been said on both these people, but for now were are going to focus in a bit on the place John the Baptist has as a forerunner to the coming of the world's Savior.

"We Used to Wait": A Very Special Arcade Fire Advent Reflection (Part 1)

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God...For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Romans 8:18-19,22-25 (ESV)

  I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD

  in the land of the living!

 Wait for the LORD;

  be strong, and let your heart take courage;

  wait for the LORD!

+++Psalm 27:13-14 (ESV)

Advent is a season of waiting. And waiting for anything can be tough.

An Index: Arcade Fire Songs For Advent (on the themes of waiting, preparing, arriving, and the light

As I have noted before, Arcade Fire have written a number of songs against the themes of Advent. I call them ANTI-Advent songs, "songs that portray light in a conflicted, confused, convoluted, ambivalent, and often negative tone"; songs that encourage us to enter into the darkness."

"I need the darkness someone please cut the lights!": A Very Special Arcade Fire ANTI-Advent Reflection

Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

+++Jesus, from the Gospel of John, chapter 8, verse 12

Statement 1: For as long as I can remember I have been awaiting Christ's second return, longing for his light to shine in our world of darkness, expecting the world's redemption, and the creation of the new heavens and the new earth.

Statement 2: For as long as I have listened to them, Arcade Fire have been singing about getting away from the light, to escape to a place where technology and the burdens of our modern age cannot find them, a place of darkness.

In other words, whereas I have lived my life in a perpetual state of advent, Arcade Fire have been living in nonstop anti-advent, thus making almost exclusively Anti-Advent music.

"Little Boys With Their Porno": Arcade Fire's search for love in the Reflective Age

You can cry, I won't go
You can scream, I won't go
Every man that you know
Would have run at the word go...

Has monogamy ever seemed sexier than on Arcade Fire's "Porno" from 2013's Reflektor?

"An Awful Sound is Coming Down": 3 Ways Relationships Die in Arcade Fire's "Oh Eurydice"

Hey Orpheus! Don't turn around too soon. Just wait until it's over. Wait until it's through.

The second disc of Arcade Fire's 2013 album Reflektor is about the inception, confliction, and ultimate death of a relationship. 

The backdrop of AF's narrative, of which they only follow in the loosest of senses, is the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Here, (according to the source material) the young man Orpheus, gifted beyond any mortal in the musical arts, woos and marries Eurydice, only to have her die by snake bite on their wedding day. Orpheus follows Eurydice to Hades where he charms the gods of the underworld through his music, convincing them to release her on the condition that she has to follow behind him until they both cross to the other side and that he cannot turn around even once or she will vanish. The tragedy ends with Orpheus turning around just as he has crossed over the river leading out of the land of the dead, failing to realize Eurydice has not yet made it through. She vanishes right before his eyes, a brief tragic tale of love won and love lost.

6 Possible Meanings to Arcade Fire's LGBT-themed "We Exist"

After first hearing Arcade Fire's "We Exist" from 2013's Reflektor, it was obvious what the song was about. The meaning was plainly evident:

(meaning #1) It was a first person narrative sung by Jesus to God the Father, lamenting people's lack of belief in them. Here was a Jesus alive on earth in modern times, and even though he was right there in the flesh, everyone is "walking around, head full of sound, acting like we don't exist...but we exist"* (lyrics) As sung by Jesus, the song is a comment on the Nietzschean God-is-dead, post-theistic world we live in. How would Jesus approach a world that doesn't believe in him, even if he is right there living among them and what would his prayers back to God be? "We Exist" captures that scenario. What a fascinating perspective to capture in a song, I thought.

Why I Cringe Every Time Someone Says "I hate Christian music"

Christian Music is dead! Long live Christian Music!

Last week Christianity Today published an article online by Peter Chin called "Why I Stopped Hating Christian Music". I related to a lot of what he mentioned in the article and would like to offer my own contribution to the conversation on Christian music and the Christian music industry. On top of that, here is a response to an article Derek Webb wrote a while ago on his blog about "Christian Music", which is called "Yes, There is Such as Christian Music: A Response to Derek Webb." In many ways I know there are no easy answers to the questions "Is there such a thing as "'Christian' music" and if so, what is the criteria for it?" There are compelling arguments on both sides of the issue and lately the side for getting rid of the term altogether seems to have the most traction. I, however, come down on the "Yes, there is such a thing as Christian music" side and would like to present my case as such over the course of these two articles. Your feedback is welcome...even though I realize things could get ugly...

Reflektor: A Listening Guide

For those of you reading along with my series on Arcade Fire here is a brief outline/listening guide to their 2013 album Reflektor, which turns 1 year old next month. 

Let's get right to it.

The album has a basic subject/narrative undergirding each song:
We all live in the "Reflective Age", an age of passive reflection. Some of us have succumbed underneath the oppressive weight of this age and some of us have overcome it, living as rebels and revolutionaries and outsiders within it, forever fighting against it. For more on the concept of the "Reflective Age" please see this article.

The Reflected Lyrics of Arcade Fire's Reflektor: A List

It's just a reflection of a reflection of a reflection of a reflection of a reflection...

You can be sure of this: Arcade Fire albums never happen by accident. From the themes of each song all the way down to how those songs are dispersed and promoted, their music is a well-planned event. It might even be the case that each album they have ever released has been part of some master plan decided on from their inception (You can go to this article or this article to see what I might mean by that).

The Explanation and Inspiration Behind Arcade Fire's Reflektor

OK. Are you all ready for this? It is time to reveal a bit of my obsessive side. There are some things in my life I think about nearly every day, and the subject I am about to write about over the next month is something that has been on my mind a lot over the past few years, but is a subject that has occupied a great deal of my headspace especially in the past year.

I feel a bit like a conspiracy theorist by even saying this, but I see things in the work of semi-Canadian rock band Arcade Fire. I see things man, lots of things. I see connections, lots of connections—reflections, even. Connectors and reflectors. All over the place. Not just in their last album, which was called Reflektor, but throughout ALL of their albums (to catch a glimpse of what I mean by the connections go here and here and here).

Wakeup!—Uncovering Arcade Fire's Grand Narrative

This week Arcade Fire's pacesetting 2004 gut punch of an album Funeral turns 10 years old and is being canonized all over independent music outlets (Pitchfork and Stereogum) and next month their fourth album Reflektor turns 1 year old, and thus it is now time for PostConsumer Reports to enter a season of heavily focused Arcade Fire articles. 

Today's post: Uncovering, discovering, and illuminating Arcade Fire's grand narrative, the one story they've been trying to tell us for ten years, the one paradigm they've been trying to get 'us kids' to sing along to.

Continual Themes and Subjects in the Work of Arcade Fire (a list)

I just posted a list, an index if you will, of every Arcade Fire song that contains a reference to light, darkness, day, night, and anything having to do with mirrors or "reflektors"

But here now is another list of common and continual themes found within their work. If you take their work as a whole it really is amazing how much the same subjects and topics and imagery keep coming up.  Sometimes I actually reference a song that contains the theme just mentioned.  In no way is every song represented in every category--there just was not time to do this.

An Index: Arcade Fire Songs Mentioning Light, Darkness, Mirrors, and Reflections

"Look into the light...Look hard into the light..."
Related Post: "Continual Themes and Subjects in the Work of Arcade Fire (a list)"

For several years now I have been made powerfully aware of a theme that runs throughout a significant amount of the work of my (current) favorite band, Arcade Fire. The theme began to occur to me after I started digesting the lyrics to their 2010 work The Suburbs. I began forming some critical (as in "literary or music criticism") thoughts about their lyrics but nothing really gelled until they released their current album Reflektor.  It now became apparent to me that they are obsessed (obsessed I tells ya!) with imagery surrounding light, darkness, day, night, mirrors, and reflections.  In fact, it permeates a great majority of their work.