I have been waiting for this morning for quite some time. Well, since Funeral was released back in 2004. And today, I sit at my favourite coffee establishment, wifi-ed up, next door to my favourite record store, waiting for 10:30 to roll around. I am still very much the music romantic at heart. I love to stand at play stations for hours on end, and walk out of a music store with 2 or 3 new picks – with the tangible items in my hot, little hands.

So the doors opened, and I was there to pick up The Arcade Fire’s latest, Neon Bible. And now I sit, headphones in, transfixed and inspired, all with the gorgeous smells of new paper and stiff plastic around me, the imagery of flipbooks and a flashy sliver and black CD, an actual CD!

This album is nothing short of epic – an emotional blast that has a bit of everything: it’s full, heavy, melodic, simplistic, passionate – I love this band. I feel as if their sound has matured and evolved to something more of what they first gave us with Funeral – is this even possible? The church organ in “Intervention” and “My Body Is A Cage” gives me goose bumps. On first listen, and second, and third!, I love every track.

Most of this album was recorded in “the church” in Quebec – can they get any cooler? Maybe that’s why it feels eerie, spiritual and I feel slightly out of my skin listening to it. Pick it up, download it – however you get your music these days, get this album – a great Canadian gem.