By Brother Daniel Leckman, S. J.
I have begun a Spanish immersion
program in Venezuela, and I am sure there will be plenty of material
to share about it in the future. For now, I’d like to finish my
reflections on the wonderful Alternative rock band from Montreal,
Arcade Fire.When their third album, ‘The Suburb’ came out, I was
a little slow to get into it. There was even more buzz around this
album than the other two.
However, it was a very different
sounding album, and I needed a few days to adapt. But once I did, I
realized why heads were being turned: it was a phenomenal album.
Their music was as edgy as ever, which
may make it inaccessible to many, but the thematic of the album
eventually draws the listener into its world, and does not let go
until the last song. As the months went by, I discovered that, not
only did they receive yet another grammy nomination for best
alternative rock album of 2010-11, but they also got one for best
album. I could hardly believe the nomination. Nominating them for
best Alternative Rock album made sense, and the fact that they had
not won in the past was shocking to many. But best overall album?
They were being held in the same category as Eminem, Kate Perry and
Lady Gaga. It was all a little surreal.
For that reason, when I was on long
experiment in Wikwemikong, Ontario, I did something I had not done in
over 20 years: I watched the Grammies. I even bothered to learn about
the other nominees. I obviously expected the industry’s big guns to
take the award, but I didn’t care. Just seeing the band perform at
a Grammy celebration was amazing enough! But the big moment was of
course one I’ll relish for a very long time: For the third time in
their history, they had lost the award for best alternative rock
album, much to my dismay. I could not believe how little recognition
this band was getting from the industry.
Then came the last award: Barbara
Streisand, reading out the nominees – the cheers were much louder
for Eminem and Lady G, since most Americans had probably not heard of
Arcade Fire yet. Finally, Babs opens the envelope with the winner’s
name, and as people in the audience are screaming out the names of
who they think should win, Streisand stutters the winner’s name “
The sssssssuburbs.”. She and many others would be in shock. Even
angry as we learned in the following weeks. The rational behind the
anger was “I haven’t heard of this band, therefore they shouldn’t
be getting Album of the year!” Even people like Rosie O’Donnell
would embarrass themselves with these kinds of comments.
Independent of the Grammies, the
haunting melodies and instrumentation of this album continued the
work the previous two albums began of helping me be in tune with the
presence of God in our world, especially in urban culture. The best
example of this came a few weeks ago, as I was returning from a visit
to the reserve. As the bus drove back into Toronto, I made a
conscience (prayerful) decision to use the music from this album to
help me connect with the spiritual side of Toronto.
So with the help of this album, I
allowed the spirit of God to enter my spiritual eye, and see life as
I wouldn’t have seen it before, as I received the spiritual energy
this city had to offer. Regular scenes of urban life suddenly drew me
in, as if they had something to reveal about the greater presence of
God in us all. The music colored, highlighted and drew me into each
one of these scenes and I was overcome with the Beauty of the divine.
Strange, that a 9 person alternative rock band from Montreal could
help me tune to the spiritual facet of things, and yet it still does
and I’m sure will continue to do so for years to come!
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