Whoa, whoa, wow. I haven’t written about a song from this album since December 2013, when I covered ‘City with No Children’. One of those instances where I can’t say time’s flown, because I can’t remember writing that post at all. Didn’t write so much about the song on there from what I can see, but more about what it meant to me and all that melodramatic stuff. Well, I can try and change it up on this occasion. Also… I’m not the most massive fan of Arcade Fire all that much, so there’s not a lot of stuff of theirs on this site anyway. I’ll tell you now, there’s only one song left from The Suburbs I’ll be writing about in the future, and then that’s it for Arcade Fire on here. I’ll leave it to you to guess what that song is.
I’m thinking back to 2010, and I’m quite sure that ‘Ready to Start’ was the first song I heard from The Suburbs. It was a massive coincidence, however, because I wasn’t even aware that Arcade Fire was releasing a new album at the time, so I had no idea who this song was by, but I know it sounded good. I want to say that the song was playing in an advert for a TV show on E4 (that’s a channel over here in the UK), which was repeated almost every day and in the same time slot too. I also want to say that the TV show in question was Skins. A Google search by my 15-year-old self showed that this was indeed a new Arcade Fire song, and I downloaded The Suburbs not too long afterwards. Strange how these things work out.
I do like ‘Ready to Start’ a bunch, though. The finishing chord from the previous track on the album segue right into the ticking snare hits of the track’s introduction, which in turn transform into the driving rhythm that ultimately carry the song for the rest of its duration with a strike of those crash cymbals. ‘Ready to Start’ is a song about self-determination, forging your own path in life and finding the strength to do so amidst pressures from various outside forces. Contributors on Genius say it’s about the band’s indie credibility being questioned by their peers as they were signing onto a major label and shaking hands with those suit-wearing cigar smoking big wigs. I guess that could be right too. What I know is, the music sounds dramatic as anything. Almost hypnotizing during those choruses. And it comes to a climactic moment when it goes into half-time for the outro before returning to its regular tempo. Oh, and I was right, it was Skins that ‘Ready to Start’ was appearing in the trailer for. See? Look at it down there. Takes me right back, it does.