Storm wrecked Exmoor reflekts on Hiatian doom - Arcade Fire's Reflektor

Pics are from New Year in stormy Exmoor.

A literally sky splitting 6am thunderstorm lit the inside of my house briefly like a summers day with its lightening. Literally sky splitting as Sky News coveraing the storms in nearby Ilfracombe felt the full force of it
Neighbours dog ran out of the house and they found him hiding under a caravan. Apparently the dog associates the backup power generators with thunder and if he can't get out of the house he attacks all the wiring.
Exciting weather for British humans, scary for their dogs - it is useful to be reminded how easy it has been for us compared  to others so far in terms of extreme weather events.


My big birthday present to self turned out to be just one CD (well two, its a double). But it was enough.
I patiently waited to get to Solo Records in Barnstaple to get the new Arcade Fire album, Reflektor.

I was intrigued by Funeral but didn't hugely like it. Tried avoiding Neon Bible but it eventually sucked me in.

Took me pretty much the length of my big road trip to get into their last album, The Suburbs, but it is almost the definitive slow burner. By the time I returned to the UK >>> could almost bring me to tears. A beautiful haunting nostalgic record looking back to today from some grim future it I suddenly realise it has something in common with ELOs Time, but is a bit better. Like comparing GATTACA with Moon Zero Two.

Reflektor is obviously a complelley different animal, a canadian-voodoo dance album. A double album, first half to me sounds like Talking Heads infused with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, second is much more Bowie. Canadian voodoo? Indie dance? This album is full of bizzare juxtopositions that go together like jam and peanut butter. Track You Already Know shocks with a very British sounding sample of Jonathan Ross, and is followed by, my favourite track, a sweet almost football chant to French nationalist symbol (and Saint) Joan of Arc.

Partially written in Hiati during the relief efforts for the 2010 earthquake and multiple hurricanes (Issac and Sandy),  Reflektor is a sound created from a world upside down and in complete flux, where inspirations are lying around waiting to be picked up randomly from the wreckage of a lost world.