Personnel: Win Butler (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric 12-string guitar, piano, synthesizer); Régine Chassagne (vocals, accordion, recorder, piano, synthesizer, xylophone, drums, percussion); Howard Bilerman (guitar, drums); Timothy Kingsbury (acoustic guitar); Anita Fust (harp); Jessica Moss, Sophie Trudeau, Owen Pallett, Sarah Neufeld (violin); Genevieve Heistek (viola); Michael Olsen, Mike Olsen (cello); Richard Reed Parry (accordion, piano, organ, synthesizer, xylophone, upright bass, percussion); Pietro Amato (horns); Will Butler (synthesizer, xylophone, percussion); Arlen Thompson (drums).

Recording information: Hotel 2 Tango (08/2003-??/2004); Win & Regine's Apartment, Montreal, Canada (08/2003-??/2004).

Photographer: Hilary Treadwell.

This Montreal ensemble's fiery debut is marked by surging guitars, soulful strings, driving drums, brilliant bass lines, and the quavering vocals of married couple Win Butler and Regine Chassagne. The group's song structures careen through a vast territory of musical and personal history, with lyrics warm with memories of childhood neighborhoods and deceased loved ones, resulting in an alternating current of joy and sadness.

Favorably compared to the Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev, and Broken Social Scene, the Arcade Fire's sound seems to come from a lifetime of listening to the Cure, Talking Heads, Elvis Costello, and many others--even a dose of soul gets worked into these grand anthems. Chassagne delivers some spellbinding vocals on "Haiti," while the tinkling piano and strings on "Crown of Love" conjure up a heartbroken surfside prom. In 2004, this made many critics' year-end lists, and it's no wonder--the songs on FUNERAL are so packed with unique instrumentation, mesmerizing build-ups, and galvanizing tempo changes that they seem culled from some enigmatic, decade-spanning rock anthology.