Drops: Fire rises from ashes of 'The Suburbs'

For the first half of its new album, "The Suburbs" (Merge), Arcade Fire seems trapped in an artistic cul-de-sac of its own creation.

In the Canadian indie-rock collective's attempt to indict the comforts and complacency of suburban life, Win Butler and his pals adopt a lazy, kind of lifeless musical backdrop to kick things off. The bland sounds are meant to set off the lyrical zingers - "When all of the wall that they built in the '70s finally fall . . . meant nothing at all," Butler sings in the title track - and they do.

However, succeeding at making something bland or annoying (and, man, do they succeed at that in the cloying "Rococo") is kind of a hollow victory and somewhat misguided, considering how good the second half of "The Suburbs" is. Starting with "Half Light II (No Celebration)," the album crackles with the lively, rousing rock anthems that made the band's debut "Funeral" stunning and its follow-up "Neon Bible" entertaining.

The glam-punk rave-up "Month of May" is an adrenaline thrill, while "Wasted Hours" is all lilting melodies and delightful restraint. "Sprawl I (Flatland)" is knotted in Butler's intense, anguished vocals and the band's stark beauty, but "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)" is pure sunshine from Regine Chassagne, so sweet-sounding that the keyboards practically break into a skip.

Maybe the introductory humdrum is needed to make the rest of "The Suburbs" sound that much more triumphant. Then again, considering the current dark realities, maybe not.

Arcade Fire plays Madison Square Garden Wednesday and Thursday with Spoon.

ARCADE FIRE

"The Suburbs"

GRADE B

BOTTOM LINE An ambitious, slightly flawed, indie-rock look at suburban life