With all that I said a couple days ago about ‘Neighborhood #2’, ‘Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)’ is a complete banger, for lack of a better word. Was the first Arcade Fire song I ever heard. Though it was with some hesitance. There was some time in 2005 when its video was playing almost every day on MTV2, and me being nine/ten at the time would usually change the channel whenever that first shot of the video came on the screen and the music started playing. I’d usually try and find other videos to watch instead. But a day came when I decided to see what ‘Power Out’ was all about and why it was taking so much airtime. I pretty much understood after that.

The animated music video shows a bunch of hooded youths cutting the power lines in a city, who are then chased by a group of smartly dressed men. One by one, the men are taken out by the youths culminating in the final man who dies quite brutally by electrocution. The movement of the characters and shot changes match the rhythm of the track, which made the experience of both watching and listening all the more thrilling. But overall, the music just sounded so dramatic and forceful. It begins with all the momentum of a freight train on the tracks and doesn’t really let up until its final chord. Win Butler’s vocals are off the wall. I’ve always liked his delivery in this one. I had no idea what he looked like because the band don’t appear in the video, but it sounded like someone who knew how to put their all into a vocal performance. Funeral had been out for months by that point, so I’m sure a lot of people figured out how good the band were already. But as the introduction to the band that it was for me, it did more than enough to show that the music required attention.

The track’s lyrics were inspired by an actual ice storm in Montreal that left the city out of power for weeks, and the verses depict these of people worrying, celebrating or not caring so much while in this situation. But it brings it down to this real human, emotional level with the “something wrong in the heart of man” sections. I couldn’t tell you what those sections are referring to, but they always make me feel a bit sad inside. Like a lot of songs that I was introduced to around that age, I’ve never gone out of the way to look too deep into the meaning of it. It’s been one of those songs that’s just always been there and existing. I’m very sure though that the core meaning of this track comes in those sections, where it’s all meant to come together. It’s beautiful stuff.