Album Review: Arcade Fire - Reflektor Tapes EP

Remember The Arcade Fire?

I mean, it’s not like they really went away, or were unpopular or anything. It’s just that in our very fast paced world, and the music “cycle” that we are all a part of, two years ago feels like a lot longer than that.

But that’s when Reflektor—the band’s double album, is originally from. So in conjunction with its second anniversary, and with the release of a documentary on the making of and subsequent tour surrounding the album, the band has released a six song EP on cassette, aptly titled The Reflektor Tapes.

Tapes is comprised of five songs that didn’t make the final cut for Reflektor, as well as a remix of “Flashbulb Eyes.” And in listening to the material, it’s easy to see why it didn’t make the album—meaning it’s not horrible, but in comparison to what did make it, it’s also not the band’s strongest work, and maybe didn’t fit into the overall concept behind the album.

The effort is sequenced so that it gets better as it moves forward—opening with the bizarre, meandering “Apocrypha”—a song that ends up being a strange, reserved meditation on the blues that reminded me slightly of some of the less accessible work of the Rolling Stones on Exile on Main Street.

The rollicking oddity “Women of A Certain Age” shuffles along at a slightly world influenced rhythm that feels like it would have fit in slightly better within the context of Reflektor, however that rhythm is leisurely enough that it also may have slowed the pacing of the record down.

As the tape gets into its second half, the material begins to sound slightly more like the Arcade Fire—the Beatle-esq piano on “Soft Power” adds to the anthemtic quality of the song, something the band knows how to do, and usually does well. It’s a slow burning and even slower to grow track.

The band revisits that meditation on the blues, but updates the sound to something that actually could have fit very well on Reflektor, with the “single” released from this effort—the expansive “Get Right,” a song that combines a heavy blues riff with huge sounding percussion and very modern beeps and boops coming from a synthesizer.

However, lyrically, “Get Right” leaves a little to be desired—coming off as more of a sketch than a final product.

The heavy religious imagery that the band is well known for since the early days returns on the EP’s final track, the sparsely arranged and tarkly named “Crucified Again,” which takes a turn within in its final half and sounds very similar to a latter day song by The Walkmen.

While the Arcade Fire is known for its bombast, and a song like “Get Right” certainly shows that, the songs featured on The Reflektor Tapes shows the band working within quite a bit of deliberate restraint, offering a bit of a reserved flip side to the sound that has come to be so synonymous with their music.

Reflektor, as an album, was a big, bold statement for the group—but then again, every record of theirs has been a big, bold statement on something. The record was their most self-aware, and possibly its most urgent to date. This EP is neither big, nor bold, nor is it essential listening. It’s certainly not out to seek the band any new fans—really only for the truest of fans, or completest out there. If anything it shows that even with a double album, the Arcade Fire knew when to self-edit in an effort to put out the best, most cohesive idea.

The Reflector Tapes ships mid-October on cassette. The songs are currently available digitally in iTunes.