Slated for a March 6th release date, the newest and brightest from Arcade Fire is facilitating a religious experience for me this morning. From what my ears are communicating to my brain, Neon Bible is every bit as prolific as Funeral, which, as you all know, was a huge hit for the Montreal-based band and the entirety of the indie rock world. Neon Bible has that same big and layered sound as Funeral– I guess what you’d expect from that many instruments working in harmony with each other. The new music sounds like, as Win Butler explains it, “standing by the ocean at night, ” and reportedly makes use of a pipe organ, the Hurdy Gurdy, a military choir, and a full Hungarian orchestra. Indio, CA on April 28th is where I’ll want to be to see Arcade Fire make a huge state-side splash with their Neon Bible tour. I saw them at Austin City Limits two years ago, and think they’ll be re-invigorated to rock Coachella with these new songs in their repertoire– this band is impressive on CD, but blows doors in a live setting. As I always tell you when I happen across an album that hasn’t been officially released– go buy it when it comes out! Support the band! Plus, the deluxe CD version is reported to come with two booklets, and will be housed in a box with a lenticular cover that looks like the graphic on the album website (excerpted here).