Following from their ambitious Funeral and Neon Bible albums, Montreal septet Arcade Fire offer their third and most focused record to date, this time thematically concerned with the modern malaise of decentralised, and decaying North Amercian urban environments. Lyrically and musically the album finds the band in top form, elegantly and memorably capturing this sense of nostalgic despair and the doomed hope of recapturing what has been lost.