Arcade Fire Funeral (2004: Merge)

1. "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)" - 4:48
2. "Neighborhood #2 (Laïka)" - 3:31
3. "Une année sans lumière" - 3:40
4. "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)" - 5:12
5. "Neighborhood #4 (7 Kettles)" - 4:49
6. "Crown of Love" - 4:42
7. "Wake Up" - 5:35
8. "Haïti" - 4:07
9. "Rebellion (Lies)" - 5:10
10. "In the Backseat" - 6:20

1. I go to a crappy bar on Division in Grand Rapids, Michigan to hear some of my best friends spin some records. My buddy Elliot comes up to me and explains that he has been listening to this band that I would love called Arcade Fire. He tells me to look them up but I ignore him, assuming wrongly that Arcade Fire is an ambient techno group.

2. During Fashion Week in 2005, David Bowie joins Arcade Fire on stage to play the Arcade Fire song "Wake Up" live. I find out that David Bowie considers Arcade Fire his favorite new band. As a result, I finally give a listen to the 2004 album Funeral.

3. The first trailer for Where the Wild Things Are surfaces. It is a beautiful balance of Spike Jonze's vision of the Maurice Sendak children's book with Arcade Fire's "Wake Up" as the audio track. I show the trailer to everyone I encounter who is anywhere near a computer anywhere.

4. My friend Andrew tells me that I look exactly like Win Butler, the lead singer of Arcade Fire. I take it as a high compliment. Several others have noted similarities in appearance ever since.

5. I declare Arcade Fire's Funeral the best album of the 2000s. Shortly afterward, Pitchfork releases a list of the best albums of the 2000s. The top positions are filled by 1. Radiohead Kid A, 2. Arcade Fire Funeral and 3. Daft Punk Discovery. Though they gave Radiohead their highest honor, Pitchfork confirmed my hypotheses that Funeral was the best debut album of the 2000s and that Arcade Fire was the best new band of the 2000s.