Either BBC music writer Mike Diver is intent on spending his life ducking punches by the ill-formed fists of flanno-wearing 90s alt throwbacks (as well as the new wave of Radiohead fan boys similarly ill-equipped for physical violence), or he has been listening to what we would have to assume will be the uncontested album of the year: Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs.
Diver ignited the Arcade Fire vs Radiohead debate with his just-published review of The Suburbs:
“…The Suburbs is [Arcade Fire’s] most thrillingly engrossing chapter yet; a complex, captivating work that, several cycles down the line, retains the magic and mystery of that first tentative encounter. You could call it their OK Computer. But it’s arguably better than that.
The dude must have balls the size of Epcot centre because one of the major unwritten rules of music journalism is: thou must not speak ill of Radiohead. It also prompts a few questions:
(a) How can you even compare the two? This dude is whack.
(b) Is Arcade Fire to the 2000s what Radiohead is to the 90s?
(c) Is OK Computer even Radiohead’s best album. Surely heaps of people prefer Kid A?
(d) Who is the Nirvana of this decade? Is chillwave the new grunge?
Title Image by Anton Corbijn via Getty
