“Neon Bible” is Still Underrated, Though

Look, some of this stuff works. The title track may have snagged its ballroom fragility straight from Abba, but that doesn’t make the song any less of an earworm. The “dancing to New Order” vibe on “Creature Comforts” overpowers any qualms one might have about the lyrics (which, feel how you’re going to feel, but the direct sincerity works for me, if only here and nowhere else), and the band gets the most out of the low-high vocal dynamic between Win Butler and Regine Chassagne. “We Don’t Deserve Love” is the kind of track that, had it been released on Reflektor, or produced through a Neon Bible lens instead of a “late Daft Punk” one, would have been called out as a deep cut hit.

That said, Everything Now is just as on-the-nose and goofy as you heard. A fun game for the cynical: Put the record on and see how far you get before a lyric makes you roll your eyes. I couldn’t make it past the opening lines of  “Signs of Life.” If you were unsure the song was going to be about the death of culture and the empty propulsion of hipness, “Those cool kids stuck in the past” will smack you in the face. This is the kind of shit I expect from My First Punk Band. This is the problem when you take a group with a deeply serious and melodramatic style and ask them to look outward instead of inward. Point that shit the right way, you get poetry. Point it the other way, you get entry level creative writing class.

Take the lyrics out of it, you’ve still got a Lego set that didn’t get the benefit of instructions or inspiration. Maybe the chunky ska of “Peter Pan” will work for you. Maybe you’ll hear “Chemistry” and not think of the worst parts of Beck smashed together with “I Love Rock and Roll.” Maybe you’ll hear the punk / folk-rock suite of “Infinite Content” and “Infinite_Content” and get the joke. Good for you, I guess.