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The Guardian - Culture Edit Unfollow Arcade Fire review – maximalist wonder that roots you in the here and now by Dorian Lynskey Apr 30, 2022 Koko, London Returning with strong new material after five years away, the Canadian indie rockers are a joyous throng of irrepressible humanity Arcade Fire: ‘America is rotten, but there are beautiful things about it’ Arcade Fire’s USP is a kind of neurotic ecstasy: everything’s terrible (especially the internet), let’s dance. Their muscular opening number, Age of Anxiety I, is proof of concept. Win Butler plunges into the crowd while Régine Chassagne rakes the room with handheld green lasers and merrily chants: “Anxiety!” Above them, on the backcloth, a giant red eye surveys the action. It’s a reference to Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We, the 1920s dystopian novel that inspired the title and theme of their new album. Arcade Fire have been banging the technosceptic drum for years (their 2007 song Black Mirror predated the TV show) but if they talk a lot about the vital importance of human connection in a digital era, then they also walk the walk. The stage is a throng of bodies jumping from instrument to instrument. There’s three of everything – guitars, keyboards, drum kits – not to mention the occasional double bass, accordion and keytar. It’s like the fully expanded Talking Heads lineup at the end of Stop Making Sense, but for the full two hours, and louder. Continue reading... Continue Reading Mitski review – a triumphant return for the poet laureate of outsiders by Kitty Empire Apr 30, 2022 Manchester Academy After a TikTok hit brought her out of early retirement, the US songwriter reaches deep into her back catalogue for a taut, artful and intense set Dressed in a prim, billowing white dress, Mitski holds her microphone high over her head, bringing it down very deliberately towards her. The song she sings is called Working for the Knife, from her recent sixth album, Laurel Hell – her most commercial outing yet, full of lush 80s productions and electronic drama. And the mic is a dagger aimed at Mitski’s soft parts. Working for the Knife can be read as a generalised cry of defeat in the face of dehumanising work. More specifically, it relays Mitski’s own internal struggles as an artist. In 2019, the US singer-songwriter decided to quit music after one final concert, exhausted to the point of dissociating from gruelling tours and the expectation that, as a confessional female singer, nothing in her life was off limits. Continue reading... Continue Reading

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