Arcade Fire/YMMV

• Broken Base: The release of The Suburbs led to one; many of their fans aren't fond of the new sound, while others think it's a step in the right direction for them.
• Crazy Awesome: The entire. Frikking. Band. Especially live.
• Colbert Bump: They have a ton of high-profile fans, from Bruce Springsteen to David Bowie to even internet celebrities like Todd in the Shadows. This has helped them be brought to the attention of more people and expand their fanbase.
• Complaining About Shows You Don't Like: One industry insider decried Arcade Fire's win at the Grammys, and other similar wins. His basic argument?: Critical acclaim shouldn't mean anything with awards, only popularity should. Needless to say, he was roundly criticized by music journalists as well as the band's manager.
• Crowning Moment of Awesome: The last fifteen minutes of the 2011 Grammys. Full stop.
• Crowning Moment of Funny: Probably not intentional, but...the band playing an acoustic version of "Neon Bible" in an elevator on Miroir Noir. Due to the cramped conditions, it's just acoustic guitar and vocals, right? Not exactly.
  • The liner notes for 'funeral' describing the band: "probably due to the excessive heat, two of them got married"
  • What was the first thing Win Butler said once the band reached the podium to accept the 2011 Grammy for Album of the Year? "What the hell?".
    • "We're gonna go play another song now, because, uh, we like music."
    • Eminem's and Dr Dre's faces when the winner is announced.
• Crowning Music of Awesome: And how!
• Ear Worm: "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)," "City With No Children," "Wake Up," "Rebellion (Lies)", "Black Mirror", "Neon Bible".
• Ensemble Darkhorse: Song version. "Haiti", a non-single track from Funeral, is popular among fans and played at nearly every show.
  • Rococo.
  • "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)" takes this Up to Eleven. It's perhaps the most instantly recognizable track off of the Suburbs and serves as the grand finale to many of their shows. Possible next single, as well, which would follow the odd trend of the second-to-last song on each album being released as a single and being considered that album's Signature Song.
• Epic Riff: "Haiti," "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)," "Neighborhood #2 (Laika)"
• Fan Myopia: In the UK, at any rate. They have enough fans that they can headline the prestigious Reading Festival (a postition where the standard is band with a singificant UK and international fandom), yet most people in the UK have never listened to them, and many have never heard of them. They rarely get played on radio, and aren't generally talked about outside of indie rock circles. In the internet age, where national culture lines are increasingly blurred, it's very easy for UK fans to forget this.
• Genius Bonus: The CD of "Neon Bible" does not have a barcode printed on it - entirely appropriate for an album about the Apocalypse^[1]
• Hate Dumb: A lot of people hate them just because... well actually a lot of the time it's not known exactly why they are hated. You'd think it would be a lot of the anti-Pitchfork crowd hating on them, but actually it tends to be the people who listen to radio hits a whole lot that are just mad because Arcade Fire are starting to appear on the radio, or those bitter that they won at the Grammys.
  • It should be noted that the people responsible for a good chunk of the Hate Dumb did the exact same thing when Neil Young beat out Justin Bieber for Canada's Artist of the Year. Right up to saying "Who is Neil Young?" Yeah.
  • Much to the amusement of the internet.
• I Am Not Shazam: After the Grammys, some people seem to be really mad at The Suburbs for winning Album Of The Year. This is a bit confusing, since The Suburbs were a punk band from the seventies.
• In the Style Of: A good many of the songs The Suburbs were designed to sound like the bands that Arcade Fire's members had grown up with (thus creating a sense of nostalgia and familiarity for those who grew up with the same bands). Some are more obvious, ("Sprawl II"'s references Blondie's "Heart of Glass"), while others are only noticeable after the fact ("Deep Blue" references Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus").
• Mainstream Obscurity: The Suburbs debuted at Number 1 on the Billboard 200 and won the Grammy for Album of the Year. You'd be hard-pressed to find someone who isn't already into indie rock who knows any of Arcade Fire's songs. 'Cept maybe Rebellion (Lies).
  • One noted exception, though, is the Chicago media market, where they have sold out shows and were voted at the top of the XRT listener poll for the best album of the year.
• Memetic Mutation: "Who Is Arcade Fire?"
  • Forced Meme: By jilted fans of the bands who lost to Arcade Fire.
• No Such Thing as Bad Publicity: "Who is Arcade Fire? They didn't deserve to win a Grammy! No one knows who they are!" Well, they do now...
• Paranoia Fuel: "The Wilderness Downtown." Big Brother Win Butler is watching you.
• Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped: "(Antichrist Television Blues)" (overzealous Stage Dads are bad) and "Intervention" (using religion to justify violence and intimidate people into giving you their money is bad).
• Spiritual Successor: Arguably, The Suburbs to Funeral. If nothing else, it continues the theme of neighborhoods. It also has two "suites" entitled "Half Light" and "Sprawl" organized in a way reminiscent of the first album's "Neighborhood" section.
• Vindicated by History: Their Grammy win, initially panned because they're not gigantic pop stars, is shaping up to be considered a victory for indie rockers everywhere.

1. ↑ A theory popularized in the 90s argued that barcodes were "The Mark of the Beast" referred to in The Book of Revelation