Arcade Fire – Culture War by MergeRecords
Arcade Fire – Speaking in Tongues (feat. David Byrne) by MergeRecords

Shortly after the release of the Suburbs, which was LOVED, Merge is gearing up to put out a deluxe version of the album.

I know this practice isn’t unorthodox, but I still belong to a camp that believes deluxe versions of albums are better released when we’ve had 10 or 20 years to decide whether a piece of music is truly amazing and worth revisiting. Will we actually want to listen to the Suburbs when we’re living in the suburbs, having kids, and cutting our lawns with 3-speed mowers? Will revisiting such an album make us feel bad?

If keeping your copy of the Suburbs around makes you feel bad about your lifestyle choices in the future, don’t let go of it. Keep the album in a cool, dry place so that future generations may enjoy it and start the revolution we were too lazy to.

Well, as a result of this deluxe reissue, we’ve got two new Arcade Fire tracks to munch on. One of them even features David Byrne, though his presence isn’t apparent until the end of the track–and even then it’s not that clear.

Of the two songs, I actually prefer “Culture War.” I wish it made the album’s final cut, but it does share some similarities with other tracks on the LP. I could see redundancy making it fail to make the final print.

Stream the tracks above, and dig on the deluxe cover below: