Reflektor

After stunning the mainstream pop machine into a state of huffy, new school e-disbelief by beating out Eminem, Lady Antebellum, Lady Gaga, and Katy Perry for the 2011 Album of the year Grammy, Arcade Fire seemed poised for a U2-style international coup, but the Suburbs, despite its stadium-ready sonic grandiosity, was far too homespun and idiosyncratic to infect the masses in the same way as the Joshua Tree or Achtung Baby. Reflektor, the collective's much anticipated fourth long-player and first double-album, moves the group even further from pop culture sanctification with a seismic 13-track set that guts the building but leaves the roof intact. Going big was never going to be a problem, especially for a band so well versed in the art of anthem husbandry, and they're still capable of shaking the rafters, as evidenced by the cool and circuitous, Roxy Music-forged, David Bowie-assisted title cut, the lush, Regine Chassagne-led "It's Never Over (Oh Orpheus)," and the impossibly dense and meaty "We Exist." ~ James Christopher Monger