Doctor Mooney's 115th Dream: Arcade Fire’s Indie Bravado Shines on their Serenade to Suburbia: “The Suburbs”

In six weeks, the Montreal collective will be unveiling the hotly anticipated follow-up to 2007's Neon Bible, The Suburbs. Frontman Win Butler revealed to NPR, "We moved to the suburbs of Houston when we were young," Further explaining. "As a young child it's kind of like [going] to Mars." Butler wanted to revisit those experiences. "A lot of my heroes, from Bob Dylan to Joe Strummer, were suburban kids who had to pretend they were train-hoppers for their whole lives."

To date, our rock ‘n roll stethoscopes have tuned into four of the sixteen cuts from the Canadian septet’s soon-to-be-released double album: “We Used to Wait,” Ready to Start,” “Month of May,” and the standout track that comes from the limited edition 12” released at the end of May, “The Suburbs.” This alluring shakeout doesn’t follow the same anthemic blueprint of past tracks – instead, they employ a rolling parlor piano line as the foundation for the epic Suburban ode. With Win Butler’s swaying, laidback, gloomy lyrical authority leading the march: “But in my dreams, we’re still screamin' and runnin' through the yard/And all of the walls that they built in the seventies finally fall/And all of the houses they build in the seventies finally fall/Meant nothin' at all.”

The Suburbs is available via Merge on August 13

The Arcade Fire are: Win Butler, Régine Chassagne, Richard Reed Parry, William Butler, Tim Kingsbury, Sarah Neufeld and Jeremy Gara.

“The Suburbs”
Written by: Winn Butler

In the suburbs I
I learned to drive
And you told me we'd never survive
Grab your mother's keys we're leavin'

You always seemed so sure
That one day we'd fight in
In a suburban world
your part of town gets minor
So you're standin' on the opposite shore
But by the time the first bombs fell
We were already bored
We were already, already bored

Sometimes I can't believe it
I'm movin' past the feeling
Sometimes I can't believe it
I'm movin' past the feeling again

Kids wanna be so hard
But in my dreams we're still screamin' and runnin' through the yard
And all of the walls that they built in the seventies finally fall
And all of the houses they build in the seventies finally fall
Meant nothin' at all
Meant nothin' at all
It meant nothin'

Sometimes I can't believe it
I'm movin' past the feeling
Sometimes I can't believe it
I'm movin' past the feeling and into the night

So can you understand?
Why I want a daughter while I'm still young
I wanna hold her hand
And show her some beauty
Before this damage is done

But if it's too much to ask, if it's too much to ask
Then send me a son

Under the overpass
In the parking lot we're still waiting
It's already passed
So move your feet from hot pavement and into the grass
Cause it's already passed
It's already, already passed!

Sometimes I can't believe it
I'm movin' past the feeling
Sometimes I can't believe it
I'm movin' past the feeling again

I'm movin' past the feeling
I'm movin' past the feeling

And in my dreams we're still screamin'
We're still screamin'
We're still screamin'