I didn’t love Reflektor or Everything Now but there were a few good songs scattered across and I sort of admired them for trying to change their sound. That being said I remember Reflektor getting a fair amount of press, whereas Everything Now seemed to not get much of a reaction at all and Norville said it was horrible so I wondered if something was up, then I myself didn’t care for the album that came out a couple years back.
I thought Richard Reed Parry had left the band but apparently it’s just paternity leave and he’s just not touring.
Then there’s the accusations against Win Butler, but I didn’t think those were exactly Kevin Spacey-level stuff.
I have slightly re-warmed to Funeral but I don’t know that it’s really possible for me to be as in love with it as I was when it came out. I didn’t revisit it for like 15 years.
I guess my main memories of Arcade Fire at this point will be that they’re the music I listened to during the pandemic–better them than Van Der Graaf Generator, but not better than Wilco or maybe Queen. I probably did think Suburbs was their best album but I’d have no idea how to explain why, it’s not like it was really more “diverse” than Funeral.

Legion sent me Hybris and at the time he said it was his favorite album, but this would have been in like 2000. I was all prepared for it to blow me away. I really liked the first song, and the fourth was okay, I kinda forgot the two in the middle. I haven’t revisited it all that much. I felt that the big deal about Anglagard was that they were a “neo prog” band that didn’t draw on any synth pop, hair metal or adult contemporary influences, just pre-1980 influences. I snickered when George reviewed them and called them “Extremely derivative,” that’s exactly what he would have said if he’d been reviewing them in 2003.

Thank God I don’t visit Prog Archives.