James’ Shamelessly Nostalgic A-Z Of Albums That He Liked To Listen To When He Was Younger – Part 14: Neon Bible

Welcome to the beginning of the second half of the 2021 A-Z Blogging Challenge, in which I attempt to catalogue an alphabetised list of albums I liked in the noughties for no particular reason.

N is for Neon Bible

Arcade Fire’s debut album Funeral is a regular participant in futile lists attempting to identify the greatest album of all time. And it is a superb record. But I’d already allocated ‘F’ to Franz Ferdinand and I stand by that decision, not least because I was definitely a fan of Franz Ferdinand when they released their eponymous first album, whereas I was a little late to the Arcade Fire party.

I’m a massive fan of the Canadian genre-defying group now of course. And, great though Funeral is, I’m equally fond of a few of their albums.

Not least their sophomore effort, Neon Bible, which was a far better follow-up to Funeral than anyone had any right to expect.

It’s not the most cheerful of albums though, as this track will attest.