This is actually a good poll, and tough I'd say.

For me, it's something like TOTBL=Funeral > Antics > Neon Bible.

I've never seen the Arcade Fire live, but Interpol is the best live show I've ever seen (and I've seen them three times).

It was tough but I picked Interpol for just being a way sick band in general, whereas the Arcade Fire makes me feel all...emotional. Oh yeah, I'm REALLY masculine so emotion frightens me! Almost forgot to mention that...

To reply to Sinister's question, how about the first track? Talk about an anti-climactic album-titled song, "Neon Bible". I don't have much love for the opening track either.

OTOH, I love "No cars go". Come to think of it, I love 94/9 (my local indie station - they play "No Cars Go" a lot) - there's nothing better than hearing The Velvet Underground or The Arcade Fire or Interpol or Modest Mouse on the radio while I'm at gym practice.

quote:

Originally posted by Sinister:
What's all this Neon Bible hate? It's my number one album of the year (NB or Boxer or Hissing Fauna, though NP's Challengers may win). Which are the NB tracks that "miss"? I think the album is incredibly solid, and the only track I think is subpar is "No Cars Go".

I wasn't hating on it, I just feel it's the weakest of the four. But I still quite like it, and it's easily in my top 10 for 2007.

You'll probably completely discredit my opinion when I tell you my least-favourite tracks are "Intervention" and "My Body Is A Cage". "Ocean of Noise" doesn't do much for me either.

i'm pretty much a babbling idiot of a fan over both of these bands, and would senselessly defend anything they recorded no matter how bloated or self-indulgent, so... this is like making me choose which testicle i'd rather lose. however, i decided arcade fire was getting my vote. though i've never seen them live (i have seen interpol), i've watched some of them at coachella on youtube, and it was mighty exciting. speaking of concerts, i'm going to see jack and meg white in Toronto tomorrow! good lord, i'm not going to be able to sleep tonight...

my opinion of Arcade Fire live:

Neon Bible stuff was pretty by-the-numbers, but dear lord, every track they played off Funeral was brilliant. this is understandable, as they've had time to perfect their older stuff.

all in all, it was great, if slightly inconsistent.

Its tough but i would have to go for Arcade Fire. Personally its 1-1 on albums, i go with Funeral above Turn On the Bright Lights easily. And would put Antics above Neon Bible. The strength of Funeral is enough for Arcade Fire to win this poll. It seems from this that most people put TOTBL above Antics whereas i would have it the other way round (though i did not think that at first)

Oh, but Fitz, but those are my two favorite tracks!

Interpol is a lot easier to just pick up and listen to on a whim, in my opinion.

Also, I feel like they kind of picked up where Ian Curtis left off.

quote:

Originally posted by CouldBAnyone:
I don't understand the kind of comparison made here, considering the two groups are radically different.

I felt the same way. Arcade Fire has a passionate sound; Interpol is quite cold in comparison. I like both but will go with Arcade Fire.

You want passion? I am speckled like a leopard...Just LIKE A LEOPARD!!!!

Nothing immediately came to me when I read the question, so I didn't offer an answer to the poll. After a lot of thinking, I believe that I'd lean toward Arcade Fire, but I can't express exactly why. I think that Funeral is a stronger album than Turn On The Bright Lights (though it's close), but Antics, Our Love to Admire and Neon Bible have all been relative disappointments for me.

I think what ultimately sells it for me is seeing Interpol live. They put on a pretty good show for the first half, but you could tell they were merely going through the motions. And then some technical problems caused them to basically jump ship. It was probably the worst show I've ever seen, and the asshole 'I'm a rock god' posturing of the group when the technical issues arose really turned me off a quite a bit. It also didn't help that I later found out they'd been playing an identical set-list for the whole tour.

So I guess ultimately, it's not Arcade Fire that wins it, but Interpol that loses it.