Segundo um post publicado pelo grande Simon Reynolds, Green Gartside, o galês que há quase trinta anos dirige de forma intermitente os desígnios dos Scritti Politti (ainda no ano passado, perante a indiferença geral, editaram o mui recomendável White Bread, Black Beer), traduz de forma perfeita a minha opinião acerca de Neon Bible. Passo a citar:
People who enjoy this album may think I'm cloth-eared and unperceptive, and I accept it's the result of my personal shortcomings, but what I hear in Arcade Fire is an agglomeration of mannerisms, cliches and devices. I find it solidly unattractive, texturally nasty, a bit harmonically and melodically dull, bombastic and melodramatic, and the rhythms are pedestrian. It's monotonous in its textures and in the old-fashioned, nasty, clunky 80s rhythms and eighth-note basslines. It isn't, as people are suggesting, richly rewarding and inventive. The melodies stick too closely to the chord changes. Win Butler's voice uses certain stylistic devices - it goes wobbly and shouty, then whispery - and I guess people like wobbly and shouty going to whispery, they think it signifies real feeling. It's some people's idea of unmediated emotion. I can imagine Jeremy Clarkson liking it; it's for people in cars. It's rather flat and unlovely. The album and the response to it represent a bunch of beliefs about expression and truth that I don't share. The battle against unreconstructed rock music continues.
NOTA: A citação transcrita acima faz parte de uma série de entrevistas levadas a cabo pelo jornalista Paul Lester para o jornal The Guardian. Na peça que podem ler na íntegra aqui, diversas personalidades do mundo da música são convidadas a fazer a sua apreciação de um disco que consideram sobrevalorizado. E digo-lhes que é, no mínimo, hilariante... principalmente quando são abordados discos que temos em boa conta.