I decided to make a playlist based off my record shelf at the onset of shelter-in-place. That turned into picking one song off each album on the shelf (that is available on Spotify). It's either the song I most associate with the album, or in the case of some absolute classics that can't be parsed, the first track. The next challenge was to write a bit (~200 words) on each selection. This is an entry in that chronicle. This is a link to the playlist.

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“Haiti” | Arcade Fire | Funeral [2004]

Well, I guess I’m going to have to write about Arcade Fire for a bit, eh? There are 8 bands/artists with three or more records on the shelf. Arcade Fire have four, which is more than all artists aside from Wilco. They’re not quite second behind Wilco when it comes to closeness to my heart. 

I would respectfully listen to anyone that doesn’t care for Arcade Fire or plainly thinks they’re wack. I think they’re fun and interesting and a song like “Haiti” is hard to argue against if you like tapping your toe, nodding your head, shimmying your shoulders, etc. 

I put this song on repeat while writing and I’m confident it played 8 times without me getting even a little sick of it. The bassline is just interesting enough to roll through you pleasantly for four minutes straight without changing. The bass, snare and shimmering acoustic guitar are enough of a hook to make a winner, but I hope I’m not the first to tell you that this is not a power trio. 

The multi-instrumental, dynamic, and textured songs get to me. The idea of a collective. Singing to the back row, to the kids that don’t know where to go or how to move their bodies when the music moves ‘em. Treating the album as the full statement and not the box you put your songs in. Other sentence fragments.