We run away but we don't know why

This post is technically about a really great song. But before I get to that, I want to get all philosophical and shit. Ha ha ha, you’re going to have to read (um, scroll through) all this crap before your ears are pleasured. We here at Electrobitches have never liked our readers. I intend to uphold this tradition.

Sometimes I find it difficult to defend art that is popular, and I don’t think I am the only one. Admit it: if someone where to tell you that their favorite painter- unequivocally and for all time - was Norman Rockwell, I’m sure you’d have a chuckle to yourself and think, “for the love of jebus, at least you could have said Andy Warhol, then you’d at least be boring instead of 100% dumb. Who’s your runner up, Thomas Kinkade?” My tendency to dismiss artistic tastes that are not sufficiently obscure goes double for music. I have a good friend who loves Bruce Springsteen. Naturally, I delight in telling him that my favorite Bruce album is ever-so-haughty Nebraska and that “Born in the USA” is not a very good song, in spite of fact that the lyrics are “like, so anti-US, man”.

If you want to be pretentious and like the boss, listen to this album

Why? Chalk it up to the year of my birth. While I hardly fancy myself an authority on the subject (or any subject for that matter), I believe my generation is obsessed with the unpopular, the fringe, and the unique. For us, Justin Bieber is nothing but an act so exceedingly bland and focus tested that 12 year girls cannot help liking him, but [insert the band that - based on your own idiosyncrasies - you deem to be artistically impressive here] is where its at.

Of course we mock those who wear their perceived cultural superiority/artistic uniqueness on their sleeve, even though we all act in a similar fashion from time to time. Why? Well, because it is popular at act superior because you’ve seen every single David Lynch movie and listened to every deadmau5 mix. People who do this are called hipsters. And we hate hipsters. But we are hipsters.

Look at these fucking hipsters

Which brings me to the Arcade Fire. Back in the day (2004), they were the crown jewel of my hipster crown. I remember parties where crowds of well-sexed, perfectly dressed faux-bohemians would stomp their feet to “Wake Up” while singing at the top their lungs. The whole lot of us believed we were the coolest of the cool because we found a sound that was special; it felt unique to our time and place.

Fast forward six years, and the same band has the number one selling album in the U.S. It is almost hard to believe - a good band with a great sound, loved by critics and hipsters alike - is popular? Like, popular for real reals? That’s impossible! Twi-fucking-light is popular, not the Arcade Fire! I imagine kids coming of age in the 90s felt the same way about Radiohead.

I find myself asking, “What happened to my little band from Montreal?” The real kicker is I don’t want an answer because that isn’t the right question. Really, what I want to know is “What happened to me? When did I start liking things that are popular? When did I become a fan of Norman Rockwell?” In one sense, Arcade Fire was always popular and I should just shut the fuck up. But another, more convenient to post type-way, I really have changed.

I grew up.

Not by a lot (which should be obvious, as I am writing for a music blog called “electrobitches”), but I’ve matured just enough not to give a shit. Real life has a way of grinding your ego into a bloody pulp, while at the same time washing away lot of old insecurities. Case in point: I know full well that by now I will never be famous (BUT I AM SO COOL! WAH!). But I am confident enough to know that I am what I love, not what loves me - and that is enough of an excuse to like anything.

Arcade Fire’s new song Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) contains elements of all the emotions I just spent 600 some odd words describing. Alternatively, the lyrics could be just vague enough to mean whatever I want them to mean. Whatever. The first line is killer: “They heard me singing and they told me to stop/Quit these pretentious things and just punch the clock”. And I think it’s safe to say that we’ve all thought, in one way or another, that the world is too much sometimes and that we “need the darkness, someone please cut the lights.” It is a great song, if you listen to it your ears will be very happy. Of course, your eyes/brain must be pissed at you for reading this post. Oh well! I hope you enjoy Sprawl II anyway.