Funeral is the debut studio album by Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire, released on September 14, 2004 by Merge Records. Preliminary recordings for Funeral were made during the course of a week in August 2003 at the Hotel2Tango in Montreal, Quebec, and the recording was completed later that year all in an analogue recording format. Its lyrics draw upon themes of death, change, and the loss of childhood innocence, inspired by the recent passing of several bandmates' family members during its production. The first half of the album, dubbed the 'Neighborhood' suite, centres around a town struggling with a power outage in the middle of winter, based on personal experience during the North American ice storm of 1998.

The album produced five singles, with "Rebellion (Lies)" being the most successful, having peaked at number 19 on the UK Singles Chart. The album was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2005 for Best Alternative Music Album. It received widespread critical acclaim and topped many year-end and decade-end lists, now often considered one of the greatest albums of all time. According to the website Metacritic, the album had the second most appearances on end-of-decade Top 10 lists, only behind Radiohead's Kid A. In 2012, Rolling Stone ranked Funeral number 151 on their revised list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time"; it dropped to number 500 in the 2020 version.

Background Funeral was largely recorded over the course of a week at the Hotel2Tango in Montreal, Quebec in August 2003. Additional recording also took place at Régine Chassagne and Win Butler's apartment, and the album was completed in 2004. The production cost of the album was estimated to be around $10,000.

The album was given its title because several band members had recently lost members of their families; Régine Chassagne's grandmother died in June 2003, Win and William Butler's grandfather (swing musician Alvino Rey) in February 2004, and Richard Reed Parry's aunts in April 2004.

Artwork The artwork for Funeral was designed by artist and photographer Tracy Maurice, depicting a scrawling quill with foliage growing from its feathers, painted onto a piece of a wooden planter. Maurice, then a Montreal-based artist, had been introduced by a mutual friend to Win Butler, who was looking for the artwork of the band's debut album. Chassagne and Butler took a liking to Maurice's drawings and commissioned her for the task. The design was inspired by Maurice's own collection of antique photographs and early 20th-century illustrated books, as well as the aesthetics of Japanese woodblock prints and Donovan's album Barabajagal.

Release Funeral was released in Canada and the US on September 14, 2004, and in the UK on February 28, 2005. A highly positive review from Pitchfork, which gave the album a 9.7 out of 10 rating, was frequently cited as a key factor that propelled Funeral into widespread recognition and commercial success. The album entered the Billboard 200 chart, a first for Merge Records; it was also the fastest-seller in the label's history. By November 2005, the album had sold over half a million copies worldwide, and by March 2007 it had sold nearly 750,000 copies worldwide.

The album is certified Gold by the Record Industry Association of America for over 500,000 copies sold in the US.

Critical reception

Funeral received universal acclaim from music critics and is commonly hailed as a modern classic. At Metacritic, the album has received an average score of 90, based on 33 reviews. It is put at one of the top 100 albums on Metacritic's list of highest scored albums of all time. AllMusic reviewer James Christopher Monger gave the album a rating of five stars out of five. He described it as "brave, empowering, and dusted with something that many of the indie-rock genre's more contrived acts desperately lack: an element of real danger." Rock critic Robert Christgau gave the album an A−, saying that Funeral was "...too fond of drama, but aware of its small place in the big world, and usually beautiful." Pitchfork gave the album a 9.7 out of 10 rating, and ultimately ranked the album #1 on their Top 50 Albums of 2004 list, as well as #2 on their Top 200 Albums of the 2000s list, after Radiohead's Kid A. Kludge called it a "glorious" debut album, in which Arcade Fire spins "elaborate art-rock full of passion and atmosphere."

Drowned in Sound also highly praised Funeral. Reviewer Jesus Chigley called the album "...empowering and hopeful and euphoric all at once", saying that "it says everything there is to say about mortality and it does it in 10 tracks." Styluss Josh Drimmer gave Funeral an A, calling it "celebratory, emotionally rich and life-affirming". Tiny Mix Tapes gave the album five stars out of five; "Funeral," the reviewer wrote, "is like nothing you've heard before, and altogether familiar." Reviewing the album in February 2005, Dave Simpson of The Guardian called it "one of the year's best already, by a mile." Zeth Lundy of PopMatters complimented Funeral on its eccentricity, calling it "bizarre at turns and recognizable elsewhere, equally beautiful and harrowing, theatrical and sincere, defying categorization while attempting to create new genres." Entertainment Weekly put it on its end-of-the-decade "best-of" list, saying, "Funerals are generally somber affairs, but the Canadian indie rockers' emotionally charged 2004 debut mostly just made us smile. And, okay, mist up a little."Geier, Thom; Jensen, Jeff; Jordan, Tina; Lyons, Margaret; Markovitz, Adam; Nashawaty, Chris; Pastorek, Whitney; Rice, Lynette; Rottenberg, Josh; Schwartz, Missy; Slezak, Michael; Snierson, Dan; Stack, Tim; Stroup, Kate; Tucker, Ken; Vary, Adam B.; Vozick-Levinson, Simon; Ward, Kate (December 11, 2009), "THE 100 Greatest MOVIES, TV SHOWS, ALBUMS, BOOKS, CHARACTERS, SCENES, EPISODES, SONGS, DRESSES, MUSIC VIDEOS, AND TRENDS THAT ENTERTAINED US OVER THE PAST 10 YEARS". Entertainment Weekly. (1079/1080):74-84 In 2017, Canadian music magazine Exclaim! ranked fifth single "Wake Up" as the best song in the band's entire catalogue.

The album was also listed in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Impact and legacy "A game-changing debut", Funeral has been designated as "one of the most triumphant rock records" of all time. Stereogum ranked it as "arguably the most influential indie-rock album" of its time, while Guitar.com saw it house "some of the most deliriously euphoric anthems" of the 2000s.

Pitchforks Stuart Berman saw Funeral change Arcade Fire into "instant indie-rock icons", helping the genre shift from "a fringe movement born of economic circumstance" to "an aspirational career model". Stereogums Chris DeVille dubbed it "a how-to guide for grand, artful, [and] cathartic rock music" that turned out "impossible to replicate". He credited it with birthing future indie rock characteristics including "sing-songy" choral work, orchestral instrumentation, and more. He also saw the album popularize arena rock's grandeur in the genre, replacing the "ironic detachment" of fellow indie group Pavement.

Accolades +Accolades for Funeral Publication Country Accolade Year Rank Consequence US The Top 100 Albums of the 2000s 2009 2 LAS Magazine US Albums of the decade 2009 1 Mojo UK The 100 Greatest Albums of Our Lifetime 1993-2006 2006 60 NME UK The 100 Greatest Albums of the 2000s 2009 7 Paste US The 50 Best Albums of the 2000s 2009 3 Pitchfork US Top 200 Albums of the 2000s 2009 2 Rolling Stone US Top 100 Albums of the 2000s 2009 6 Rolling Stone US 500 Greatest Albums of All Time 2020 500 Rolling Stone US 100 Best Debut Albums of All Time 2013 15 Slant Magazine US Top 250 Albums of the 2000s 2010 4 Spin US 125 Best Albums of the Past 25 Years 2010 66Under the Radar US Top 200 Albums of the Decade2009 1 Q UK 250 Best Albums of Q's Lifetime 2011 19 NME UK The 500 Greatest Albums of the All Time 2013 13 CBC Music Canada 100 Greatest Canadian Albums of the All Time 2013 4 PopMatters US 100 Best Albums of the 2000s 2014 3

Track listing

Personnel Credits adapted from the liner notes of Funeral.Arcade Fire Arcade Fire – production, string arrangements, engineering, recording Win Butler – vocals, 6 and 12 string electric guitars, acoustic guitar, piano, synthesizer, bass Régine Chassagne – vocals, drums, synthesizer, piano, accordion, xylophone, recorders, percussion Richard Reed Parry – electric guitar, synthesizer, organ, piano, accordion, xylophone, percussion, double bass, engineering, recording Tim Kingsbury – bass, electric guitar, acoustic guitar Howard Bilerman – drums, guitar, engineer, recording William Butler – bass, xylophone, synthesizer, percussionAdditional musicians Sarah Neufeld – violin, string arrangements Owen Pallett – violin, string arrangements Michael Olsen – cello Pietro Amato – horn Anita Fust – harp Sophie Trudeau – violin Jessica Moss – violin Gen Heistek – viola Arlen Thompson – drums Technical personnel'

Mark Lawson – engineering, recording Thierry Amar – recording assistance Ryan Morey – mastering Hilary Treadwell – photography, artwork Tracy Maurice – cover art

Charts

Weekly charts Chart (2005–06,2021) Peakposition Australian Albums Chart 80 Belgian Albums Chart (Flanders) 59 Canadian Albums Chart 23 Dutch Albums Chart 42 French Albums Chart 61 German Albums Chart 96 Irish Albums Chart 16 Norwegian Albums Chart 27 Portuguese Albums Chart 16 UK Albums Chart (OCC) 33 US Billboard 200 123

Certifications

See also Album era

References

Further reading

External links