264/367: Arcade Fire - Lenin

this is from the Dark Was the Night charity compilation, which came out in 2009.  It’s a pretty amazing collection of (exclusive) songs (many of them great covers) that manages to more or less coalesce a rising, engulfing group of pop acts who have sort of defined, to varying degrees, the current indie pop music spectrum.  Like the Dirty Projectors, Grizzly Bear, Bon Iver, Sufjan Stevens, Beach House, The Decemberists, the National (of which are the Dessner brothers, who put the whole thing together), and so on.  As well as some acts that sort of helped prototype, to varying degrees, this restless approach to pop & rock & folk music. Like Blonde Redhead, Yo La Tengo, David Byrne, Spoon, Ben Gibbard (of Death Cab for Cutie), etc.  But basically, it’s a magical, I’d say important compilation.  Especially in its clean way of presenting what’s basically an otherwise hard-to-define-hard-to-encompass movement of indie music.  In other words, I could burn these 2-discs for somebody & would have, in one fell sweep-y swoop introduced them to about 10 of my favorite bands/musicians.  Oh, & My Brightest Diamond’s got a sweeeeeeet version of the stage standard “Feeling Good” on there.  Oh, & Andrew Bird’s contribution was a cover of The Handsome Family’s “The Giant of Illinois”, which is a indisputably great thing.  I’d probably just keep listing songs if I didn’t stop myself, so this is me stopping myself.  Go buy it.  Don’t be lame & gross.  Dark Was the Night.  Go.