I also love in the PNW.  But about 100 miles west in the small town of Sequim.  A few buildings at two stories, and tall mountains rising to the south.  Three small shopping centers.  Ocean to the north.

Yet, or because of, we are growing too.  Spoke the Eagles, "When you call it paradise, kiss it goodbye."

LLRP!

vaguely europop techno disco.
and folks listen to this ABBA clone?   Geez.......

Having lived aboard different boats for a good bit of the last 36 years and now looking for a home ashore the amount of sprawl my hometown of greater Daytona Beach and it's 5 surrounding cities has suffered is appalling.  

How appropiate this song!  I gave is a 9 when it first appeared here on RP and I confess, I must now bump it to a 10.  What has become of America and it's plethora of 'burbs?

Living in the PNW, I can firmly say our mountains are taller than yours....though our dying shopping malls may be the same.....(I actually live near one of the 'suburb shopping malls (Alderwood) that is getting extra business from the closed down 'city' mall (Northgate) - Long Live RP and all the Urban, Suburban and Rural areas on the world!!

Methinks you do not understand the theme here.  Just because we have a wealth of consumer goods doesn't mean we live meaningful lives.  In fact it means the opposite. 

And we have created aspirations in others for the same pursuit of crap.  Crap that fills our world with garbage and other pollution.  Crap that is destroying the natural world and us with it.

So, this song/album is about the angst and oppression of growing up in a middle-class suburb? 

First World problems.

I don't know about where you live, but here in South Florida "dead shopping malls rise like mountains beyond mountains" describes my world.

Thank you brianlay for being so tolerant to people that have a musical taste for garbage made by non-talented artists.

Blondie clone. Arcade Fire are yet_another_hipsters.

No talent garbage however I can appreciate others might like it!

No talent garbage however I can appreciate others might like it!

No talent garbage however I can appreciate others might like it!

This has got to be one of favourite Arcade Fire songs! Régine's voice is sublime!

This band is energetic and fun, and they really stretch my music sensibilities.  Sort of a Blondie tribute song.

Nairobi has this problem too, as does Sao Paulo, Cairo and New York.

I'm finding this a bit shrill and grating.

That's obvious, isn't it?  Middle-class suburbs only exist in the "First World".  Would you prefer they wrote a song/album about pretending to be Bangladeshi peasants?

So many members in the band. So little output...no hooks. Overproduced. Boring. Muted. Nothing here. Was this recorded in 1983?
 
One of the most over-rated bands out there. When does their 15 minutes expire?   

Pop in its worst form. Madonna did it better.

Nobody's really mentioned the brilliant lyrics for this song: (together with the voice makes it a classic song about being an ARTIST) :

They heard me singing and they told me to stop
Quit these pretentious things and just punch the clock

These days my life I feel it has no purpose
But late at night the feelings swim to the surface

'Cause on the surface the city lights shine
They're calling at me, come and find your kind

Sometimes I wonder if the world's so small
That we can never get away from the sprawl

Living in the sprawl, dead shopping malls rise
Like mountains beyond mountains
And there's no end in sight
I need the darkness, someone please cut the lights

We rode our bikes to the nearest park
Sat under the swings and kissed in the dark

You shield my eyes from the police lights
We run away, but we don't know why

The black river, your city lights shine
They're screaming at us, "We don't need your kind"

Sometimes I wonder if the world's so small
That we can never get away from the sprawl

Living in the sprawl, dead shopping malls rise
Like mountains beyond mountains
And there's no end in sight
I need the darkness, someone please cut the lights

They heard me singing and they told me to stop
Quit these pretentious things and just punch the clock
Sometimes I wonder if the world's so small
Can we ever get away from the sprawl?

Living in the sprawl, dead shopping malls rise
Like mountains beyond mountains
And there's no end in sight
I need the darkness, someone please cut the lights
I need the darkness, someone please cut the lights

 

You guys could at least get her name right...it's Debbie Harry, not Harold !    And this really doesn't sound like her at all, IMHO.

Yep, says Deborah Harold to me too.

Yep, says Deborah Harold to me too.

I always think this is Blondie when it first comes on.

I hate that I love this.  Even my cleaner said its 5h1t!

I always think this is Blondie when it first comes on.

So many RP listeners act like pointing out the possible influences of a band somehow dismisses whatever creativity is happening. 
I don't get it.
Influences are inevitable- and if it sounds like something 20 years ago, but isn't as cool as what you're mind is relating it to.... oh well. 
My guess is most of these types of comments come from people who don't play music and don't understand that there's only so much you can do in the field of "popular music" and most likely couldn't write a song half as cool as this.

I just don't get what the big deal is about this band.... bubble gum to me..

I think a lot of the issues you and I have are based more on world outlook than practical differences.  

Intelligently planned communities, built with an eye for sustainability, low environmental impact, and common sense are not a bad thing at all.  I don't have anything wrong with subdivisions for housing (at least not on moral grounds, it's just not to my taste), but the kind of sprawl that bothers me is the commercial sprawl that leaves urban decline in it's wake.  

Let me give you a prime example of it from where I live.  About 7 or 8 miles out of town, a brand new, shiney, outdoor shopping center was opened.  It was skewed to a slightly upscale buying audience in order to draw money out of the city and the surrounding areas.  It has proven to be a successful venture for most of the stores located there and it's pretty much the shopping destination for anyone able to drive out there.  It was located in what used to be farm land owned by a couple of families.  They got their check, the developers got their check, and the businesses there get their checks.  Everyone is happy.

Except for the people that lived near and within walking distance of a closer mall.  Granted the mall was dated, but if the city had given the mall ownership even a fraction of the support given to the new shopping center, they would have been able to refresh it and keep it up to date.  Instead, the stores inside withered as the buying population went to the new stores.  People lost their livelihoods and life savings trying to save stores, but as the anchor stores left, so too did the majority of the shoppers.  All that were left was the poor, those who could not afford the merchandise at the shopping center, or didn't have reliable transportation to get there.  As stores left the area, they took jobs with them.  As the jobs left the area, people could not longer afford to shop for anything, and the remaining shops closed down.  

Now, instead of a mall, there is one giant, weed choked slab of concrete.  The people in the immediate area are suffering more because what few employers they did have left.  Now, crime is higher in those areas, the roads are deteriorating to be nearly unusable so that those that can find work, have to destroy their cars to get there.

Before you say "them's the breaks", consider both the economic and social benefits of just refreshing and renovating what was already there. The land would still be productive farmlands, thus contributing to the local economy.  There would be more jobs in the area (granted, not great jobs, but everyone has to start out somewhere and it always beats no job).  The area wouldn't be as dangerous for the residents.  The roads would not have crumbled so those that work would be able to make their cars last longer.  

Personally, I'd rather not have to drive further than necessary to spend more for something that I could have gotten closer for cheaper.

As for any moral superiority of a high rise over a split level ranch, you are right (edit...  I hate split level houses.  When I worked as a cable installer I had to go into several and they are a nightmare to wire and I think they waste a lot of space).  Personally, I'd rather have a nice house on a wooded countryish lot than an apartment in a high rise somewhere.  I don't begrudge anyone the right to live where ever they want.  The issue I do have is the incessant need that people have for bigger and better things at the cost of common sense, logic, and sustainability.  If you want a house away from the city, fine.  But does your house really need to have 5 bedrooms and a bathroom every 17 feet? 

The issue isn't a policy one, or even a social one.  My issues are all cultural.  I disagree with the throw away culture just as much as I disagree with the culture of ethnocentrism where people will stare in the face of reality and still declare that the American way of doing ANYTHING is better, simply because it's the American way.

Edit:  RDO, next time I'm in DC, I want to take you out for a beer or 12.  I've had more fun debating you on this forum than I have arguing with anyone.  Most of the people with differing views are about as inarticulate as a turnip and always end up with an argument that tells me they feel that way because Glenn Beck told them to.

2.8% of RP listeners think so......which says more about you and your lack of taste than anything else.  

..........a solid 1.....