Arcade Fire's beloved 2004 album "Funeral" turns 10 years old this week. According to Wondering Sound senior editor Jayson Greene, it's a "seismic event" in the world of independent rock.
"[The album] has the quality of a fairy tale, a dangerous and vivid world where wondrous, ominous things happen," he wrote. "When we return to 'Funeral,' it is because we want to live in this world."
Tp pay proper tribute to the record that garnered a 9.7 Pitchfork stamp of approval, Jayson and his team commissioned a graphic novella from the poet and writer Jess Sauer and illustrator Immer Handbreit. Titled "The Neighborhood Wakes," the series of artworks is an abstract interpretation of "Funeral," crafted using the technique of erasure.
Essentially, by erasing words and letters from the original Arcade Fire album lyrics, Sauer was able to glean a whole new tale -- "a sort of sequel" -- that resembles the eerie remnants of a time passed. According to Jayson, Sauer came up with the idea of using the erasure technique to mine the lyrics of a hidden story, and Handbreit then immersed himself in the world, "down to the tiniest details."
"Funeral has always been a special album, one with a slightly magical atmosphere, and the lyrics are primarily about transfiguration," Jayson explained to HuffPost. "I figured that other publications would probably go for the oral histories, the retrospectives; I wanted to find a way to honor that spirit, and celebrate it, because it felt like the album's most lasting impact gift to us."
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