Noel Gallagher Once Called Arcade Fire's Reflektor the Most Pretentious Record of 2013
Back in 2013, Noel Gallagher went after Arcade Fire's fourth album Reflektor in a Rolling Stone interview — before he'd actually listened to it. The double-disc record, running more than 85 minutes, was enough on its own to set him off, and his comments are making the rounds online again recently.
"Anybody who brings a double album back to me, in my opinion, needs to pull themselves out of their own arse. It's not the 70s," Gallagher said, adding: "Who the fuck has time in 2013 to sit down and listen to a 45-minute record? How arrogant do these people have to be to think you've got an hour and a half to listen to one album?"
The double-album argument
Gallagher name-checked Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins in his criticism, framing double albums as a symbol of self-indulgence. But as Far Out Magazine has pointed out, Corgan's own double-disc effort, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (1995), is widely regarded as one of the defining rock records of the 1990s. Nine Inch Nails, Prince, Outkast, Bruce Springsteen and Hüsker Dü all released acclaimed double albums after the 1970s too.
There's a wrinkle in Gallagher's own history here: The Beatles' self-titled record — better known as the "White Album" — was released as a double disc back in 1968, an album Gallagher himself has long praised. And Oasis's own (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, even in its single-disc form, runs over 50 minutes — a bit longer than the "45-minute" line he drew.
The Reflektor Tour dress code
Gallagher's complaints didn't stop at album format. To match the stage aesthetic of Reflektor, Arcade Fire asked fans attending the Reflektor Tour to show up in formal wear or costume. Gallagher mocked this in a mock back-and-forth, recounting how he kept asking what the show was like, only to be told: "I don't know, everyone's dressed as teddy bears from the 70s." His verdict: "Not for me."
Gallagher has long been skeptical of Radiohead's art-rock direction, and has also taken shots at Jack White and producer Mark Ronson. The Reflektor episode is part of the same outspoken pattern, and the old quotes are once again making the rounds online.