But with the right label, the license deal can be a great way to go. This is the relationship Arcade Fire has with Merge Records, an indie label that's done great for its band by avoiding the big-spending, big-label approach. "Part of it is just being realistic and not putting yourself in the hole," Merge cofounder Mac McCaughan says. "The bands we work with, we never recommend that they make videos. I like videos, but they don't sell a lot of records. What really sells records is touring — and artists can actually make money on the tour itself if they keep their budgets down." [Read More]

"The 'we're number one' finger and the heavy metal horn-sign and, most importantly, the hand-dancing in Indonesian and Pakistani (religious-minded) pop music videos. There wouldn't be any conventional (full-body) dancing," he explains.

"The approach was to please as many people as possible, in The Fiery Furnaces' manner," group member Matthew Friedberger tells Billboard.com. "'Widow City' is just meant to be a huge hit-type record. We tried to use or play with the sounds of and playing styles from past 'huge hits' from the early and mid-'70s."

...

"The music is supposed to tell the story as much as, or more than, the words do," he says. "The lyrics were written with, or by means of, ads at the back of design magazines from the early '70s, the cultural pages, if any, of local community minority or alternative lifestyle newspapers and depictions of grieving children using the aforementioned Ouija board."

It's a strange album (shock!) that seems to cling closely to the band's Bitter Tea sound while sanding a bit from both ends. There are less maddening annoyances but also fewer flatly beautiful rays of light.