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121-596: Neon Bible is the second studio album by Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire . It was first released on March 5, 2007, in Europe and a day later in North America by Merge Records . Originally announced on December 16, 2006, through the band's website, the majority of the album was recorded at a church the band bought and renovated in Farnham , Quebec . The album is the first to feature drummer Jeremy Gara , and

242-418: A symphonia , in the 13th century, a small box-shaped version of the hurdy-gurdy with three strings and a diatonic keyboard. At about the same time, a new form of key pressed from beneath was developed. These keys were much more practical for faster music and easier to handle; eventually they completely replaced keys pulled up from above. Medieval depictions of the symphonia show both types of keys. During

363-763: A draailier , which is similar to its German name, Drehleier . An alternate German name, Bauernleier , means "peasant's lyre". In Italy, it is called the ghironda or lira tedesca while in Spain, it is a zanfona in Galicia, zanfoña in Zamora, rabil in Asturias and viola de roda in Catalonia. In the Basque language, it is known as a zarrabete . In Portugal, it is called sanfona . The Hungarian name tekerőlant and

484-420: A "live" sound. Recordings, including live, may contain editing, sound effects, voice adjustments, etc. With modern recording technology , artists can be recorded in separate rooms or at separate times while listening to the other parts using headphones ; with each part recorded as a separate track . Album covers and liner notes are used, and sometimes additional information is provided, such as analysis of

605-674: A North American tour in support of the band's first album, Funeral , songwriter Win Butler , born in the United States but having lived in Canada for several years, said that he felt he was observing his homeland from an outsider's point of view. The album is rooted in Americana themes, with Bob Dylan , Bruce Springsteen and Elvis Presley being cited as influences. Arcade Fire began recording with what would become "Black Mirror" and

726-505: A broad keybox and the drone strings run within the keybox. Because of the small size of the wheel these instruments most commonly have three strings: one melody string, one tenor drone, and one bass drone. They sometimes have up to five strings. Large-wheeled instruments (wheel diameters between 14 and 17 cm, or about 5.5 – 6.6 inches) are traditionally found in Western Europe. These instruments generally have

847-458: A brown heavy paper sleeve with a large hole in the center so the record's label could be seen. The fragile records were stored on their sides. By the mid-1920s, photo album publishers sold collections of empty sleeves of heavier paper in bound volumes with stiff covers slightly larger than the 10" popular records. (Classical records measured 12".) On the paper cover in small type were the words "Record Album". Now records could be stored vertically with

968-463: A buzzing bridge—called a chien (French for dog) or recsegő (Hungarian for "buzzer")—on one drone string. Modern makers have increased the number of buzzing bridges on French-style instruments to as many as four. This mechanism consists of a loose bridge under a drone string. The tail of the buzzing bridge is inserted into a narrow vertical slot (or held by a peg in Hungarian instruments) that holds

1089-412: A collection of pieces or songs on a single record was called an "album"; the word was extended to other recording media such as compact disc, MiniDisc , compact audio cassette, 8-track tape and digital albums as they were introduced. An album (Latin albus , white), in ancient Rome, was a board chalked or painted white, on which decrees, edicts, and other public notices were inscribed in black. It

1210-403: A compilation of songs created by any average listener of music. The songs on a mixtape generally relate to one another in some way, whether it be a conceptual theme or an overall sound. After the introduction of Compact discs, the term "Mixtape" began to apply to any personal compilation of songs on any given format. The sales of Compact Cassettes eventually began to decline in the 1990s, after

1331-424: A current or former member of a musical group which is released under that artist's name only, even though some or all other band members may be involved. The solo album appeared as early as the late 1940s. A 1947 Billboard magazine article heralded " Margaret Whiting huddling with Capitol execs over her first solo album on which she will be backed by Frank De Vol ". There is no formal definition setting forth

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1452-561: A customer buys a whole album rather than just one or two songs from the artist. The song is not necessarily free nor is it available as a stand-alone download, adding also to the incentive to buy the complete album. In contrast to hidden tracks , bonus tracks are included on track listings and usually do not have a gap of silence between other album tracks. Bonus tracks on CD or vinyl albums are common in Japan for releases by European and North American artists; since importing international copies of

1573-524: A distinctive percussive buzzing sound as the player turns the wheel. The hurdy-gurdy is generally thought to have originated from fiddles in either Europe or the Middle East (e.g., the rebab instrument) before the eleventh century A.D. The first recorded reference to fiddles in Europe was in the 9th century by the Persian geographer Ibn Khurradadhbih (d. 911) describing the lira ( lūrā ) as

1694-461: A few hours to several years. This process usually requires several takes with different parts recorded separately, and then brought or " mixed " together. Recordings that are done in one take without overdubbing are termed "live", even when done in a studio. Studios are built to absorb sound, eliminating reverberation , to assist in mixing different takes; other locations, such as concert venues and some "live rooms", have reverberation, which creates

1815-514: A guitarist uses his or her fingers on the fretboard of a guitar. In the earliest hurdy-gurdies these keys were arranged to provide a Pythagorean temperament , but in later instruments the tunings have varied widely, with equal temperament most common because it allows easier blending with other instruments. However, because the tangents can be adjusted to tune individual notes, it is possible to tune hurdy-gurdies to almost any temperament as needed. Most contemporary hurdy-gurdies have 24 keys that cover

1936-419: A lack of control; of television, Butler stated that: People don't necessarily know that they're taking on a worldview, or absorbing ideas [while watching television]. It doesn't necessarily seem like [it's happening], but it definitely does. I find it very easy to get sucked in. It starts to affect the way you see the world. These ideas are reflected in the arrangement and composition of the album, which lead to

2057-420: A narrow keybox with drone strings that run outside the keybox. They also generally have more strings, and doubling or tripling of the melody string is common. Some modern instruments have as many as fifteen strings played by the wheel, although the most common number is six. In pop music , especially in the popular neo-medieval music , electric hurdy-gurdies are used, wherein electro magnetic pickups convert

2178-520: A number of sound clips from the upcoming album and featured " Juno award -winning guitarist Richard Reed Parry ", gave the album's track listing, release date, and record label. On February 2, 2007, all the lyrics to Neon Bible were released on the band's website. Also included was the text and an audio clip of a child reading "The Wolf and the Fox", a French fable allegedly written by 17th century French poet Jean de La Fontaine , an allusion to "The Well and

2299-563: A permanent recording location was necessary. Following their tour in support of Funeral , the band bought the Petite Église in Farnham , Quebec . Being used as a café at the time of purchase, the Petite Église had once been a church and a Masonic Temple . Once renovation of the church was complete, the band spent the latter half of 2006 recording a majority of the album there. Michael Pärt produced additional recordings in Budapest , recording

2420-433: A range of two chromatic octaves. To achieve proper intonation and sound quality, each string of a hurdy-gurdy must be wrapped with cotton or similar fibers. The cotton on melody strings tends to be quite light, while drone strings have heavier cotton. Improper cottoning results in a raspy tone, especially at higher pitches. In addition, individual strings (in particular the melody strings) often have to have their height above

2541-472: A reworking of the Arcade Fire EP song "No Cars Go" as their starting point. Once the title of the album was decided upon, the band was further inspired after they, according to Win Butler, "watched a lot of TV preachers, get-rich-quick schemes on YouTube ." The band was also attracted to using the ocean and television as central images for the album, with Win Butler saying the ocean imagery symbolizes

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2662-1131: A series of concerts at churches and other small venues in Ottawa, Montreal, London and New York. This was followed by a 23 date European tour in March and early April, though the last 9 dates of this were cancelled due to illness. The first North American leg of the tour began April 26 in San Diego and April 28 at Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and contained 26 dates. This leg contained openings by The National , St. Vincent , and Electrelane . The band then began an 11-date European leg at Glastonbury Festival on June 22 before returning to North America for 10 more LCD Soundsystem -supported dates beginning September 15 at Austin City Limits . The Neon Bible tour continued with 14 more dates in Europe between October 25 and November 19, and six dates beginning January 18, 2008 in Australia and New Zealand as part of

2783-481: A short description of the construction of the organistrum entitled Quomodo organistrum construatur (How the Organistrum Is Made), known through a much later copy, but its authenticity is very doubtful. Another 10th-century treatise thought to have mentioned an instrument like a hurdy-gurdy is an Arabic musical compendium written by Al Zirikli. One of the earliest visual depictions of the organistrum

2904-402: A single artist, genre or period, a single artist covering the songs of various artists or a single artist, genre or period, or any variation of an album of cover songs which is marketed as a "tribute". Hurdy-gurdy Most hurdy-gurdies have multiple drone strings, which give a constant pitch accompaniment to the melody, resulting in a sound similar to that of bagpipes . For this reason,

3025-522: A single case, or a triple album containing three LPs or compact discs. Recording artists who have an extensive back catalogue may re-release several CDs in one single box with a unified design, often containing one or more albums (in this scenario, these releases can sometimes be referred to as a "two (or three)-fer"), or a compilation of previously unreleased recordings. These are known as box sets . Some musical artists have also released more than three compact discs or LP records of new recordings at once, in

3146-433: A solo album for several reasons. A solo performer working with other members will typically have full creative control of the band, be able to hire and fire accompanists, and get the majority of the proceeds. The performer may be able to produce songs that differ widely from the sound of the band with which the performer has been associated, or that the group as a whole chose not to include in its own albums. Graham Nash of

3267-406: A sound of dread and dissonance. The band used a number of less common instruments to achieve this sound; in addition to the orchestra and choir, Neon Bible features a hurdy-gurdy , mandolin , accordion and pipe organ . Win Butler has said that in conceiving the album he hoped for a more stripped-down sound but the songs demanded further instrumentation. The song "(Antichrist Television Blues)"

3388-414: A studio. However, the common understanding of a "live album" is one that was recorded at a concert with a public audience, even when the recording is overdubbed or multi-tracked. Concert or stage performances are recorded using remote recording techniques. Albums may be recorded at a single concert , or combine recordings made at multiple concerts. They may include applause, laughter and other noise from

3509-406: A theme such as the "greatest hits" from one artist, B-sides and rarities by one artist, or selections from a record label , a musical genre , a certain time period, or a regional music scene. Promotional sampler albums are compilations. A tribute or cover album is a compilation of cover versions of songs or instrumental compositions. Its concept may involve various artists covering the songs of

3630-453: A trend of shifting sales in the music industry , some observers feel that the early 21st century experienced the death of the album . An album may contain any number of tracks. In the United States, The Recording Academy 's rules for Grammy Awards state that an album must comprise a minimum total playing time of 15 minutes with at least five distinct tracks or a minimum total playing time of 30 minutes with no minimum track requirement. In

3751-469: A typical instrument within the Byzantine Empire . One of the earliest forms of the hurdy-gurdy was the organistrum , a large instrument with a guitar -shaped body and a long neck in which the keys were set (covering one diatonic octave). The organistrum had a single melody string and two drone strings, which ran over a common bridge, and a relatively small wheel. Due to its size, the organistrum

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3872-407: A variety of styles of music (see the list of recordings that use hurdy-gurdy ), including contemporary forms not typically associated with it. A person who plays the hurdy-gurdy is called a hurdy-gurdist, or (particularly for players of French instruments) viellist. In France, a player is called un sonneur de vielle (literally "a sounder of vielle"), un vielleux or un vielleur . Because of

3993-430: A way of promoting the album. Albums have been issued that are compilations of older tracks not originally released together, such as singles not originally found on albums, b-sides of singles, or unfinished " demo " recordings. Double albums during the seventies were sometimes sequenced for record changers . In the case of a two-record set, for example, sides 1 and 4 would be stamped on one record, and sides 2 and 3 on

4114-469: Is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music ) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track or cassette ), or digital . Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records (78s) collected in a bound book resembling a photo album ; this format evolved after 1948 into single vinyl long-playing (LP) records played at 33 + 1 ⁄ 3   rpm . The album

4235-580: Is any vocal content. A track that has the same name as the album is called the title track. A bonus track (also known as a bonus cut or bonus) is a piece of music which has been included as an extra. This may be done as a marketing promotion, or for other reasons. It is not uncommon to include singles, B-sides , live recordings , and demo recordings as bonus tracks on re-issues of old albums, where those tracks were not originally included. Online music stores allow buyers to create their own albums by selecting songs themselves; bonus tracks may be included if

4356-529: Is from the Hungarian hegedűs (Slovenian variant hrgadus ) meaning a fiddle. In France, the instrument is known as vielle à roue (wheel fiddle) or simply vielle (even though there is another instrument with this name), while in the French-speaking regions of Belgium it is also known in local dialects as vièrlerète/vièrlète or tiesse di dj'va ('horse's head'). The Flemings and the Dutch call it

4477-409: Is from the twelfth-century Pórtico da Gloria (Portal of Glory) on the cathedral at Santiago de Compostela , Galicia, Spain: it has a carving of two musicians playing an organistrum. Later, the organistrum was made smaller to let a single player both turn the crank and work the keys. The solo organistrum was known from Spain and France, but was largely replaced by an improved variant, known as

4598-555: Is not necessarily just in MP3 file format, in which higher quality formats such as FLAC and WAV can be used on storage media that MP3 albums reside on, such as CD-R-ROMs , hard drives , flash memory (e.g. thumbdrives , MP3 players , SD cards ), etc. The contents of the album are usually recorded in a studio or live in concert, though may be recorded in other locations, such as at home (as with JJ Cale's Okie , Beck's Odelay , David Gray's White Ladder , and others), in

4719-402: Is recorded on both the "A" and "B" side of the tape, with cassette being "turned" to play the other side of the album. Compact Cassettes were also a popular way for musicians to record " Demos " or "Demo Tapes" of their music to distribute to various record labels, in the hopes of acquiring a recording contract . Compact cassettes also saw the creation of mixtapes , which are tapes containing

4840-493: Is still no standardized design today. The six-stringed French vielle à roue is the best-known and most common sort. A number of regional forms developed, but outside France the instrument was considered a folk instrument and there were no schools of construction that could have determined a standard form. There are two primary body styles for contemporary instruments: guitar-bodied and lute-backed. Both forms are found in French-speaking areas, while guitar-bodied instruments are

4961-400: Is used. Nylon is also sometimes used, but is disliked by many players. Some instruments also have optional sympathetic strings, generally guitar or banjo B strings. The drone strings produce steady sounds at fixed pitches. The melody string(s) (French chanterelle(s) , Hungarian dallamhúr(ok) ) are stopped with tangents attached to keys that change the vibration length of the string, much as

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5082-647: The Big Day Out festival. The tour then ended after three more shows from February 7 in Japan. On November 5, 2023, Arcade Fire played Neon Bible in full at Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City . The show was announced as a surprise less than a week in advance. Compared to the band's debut, Funeral , Neon Bible experienced breakthrough commercial success. During its first week, it debuted at number one in both Canada and Ireland , and number two in

5203-676: The Olympic Peninsula area of the state of Washington each September. Today, the tradition has resurfaced. Revivals have been underway for many years as well in Austria , Belarus , Belgium , the Czech Republic , Denmark , Germany , Hungary , Italy , the Netherlands , Norway , Poland , Portugal , Russia , Slovakia , Spain , Sweden , and Ukraine . As the instrument has been revived, musicians have used it in

5324-481: The Renaissance , the hurdy-gurdy was a very popular instrument (along with the bagpipe) and the characteristic form had a short neck and a boxy body with a curved tail end. It was around this time that buzzing bridges first appeared in illustrations. The buzzing bridge (commonly called the dog ) is an asymmetrical bridge that rests under a drone string on the sound board. When the wheel is accelerated, one foot of

5445-520: The iPod , US album sales dropped 54.6% from 2001 to 2009. The CD is a digital data storage device which permits digital recording technology to be used to record and play-back the recorded music. Most recently, the MP3 audio format has matured, revolutionizing the concept of digital storage. Early MP3 albums were essentially CD-rips created by early CD- ripping software, and sometimes real-time rips from cassettes and vinyl. The so-called "MP3 album"

5566-564: The lira or relia. It was and still is played by professional, often blind, itinerant musicians known as lirnyky . Their repertoire has mostly para-religious themes. Most of it originated in the Baroque period. In Eastern Ukraine, the repertoire includes unique historic epics known as dumy and folk dances. Lirnyky were categorised as beggars by the Russian authorities and fell under harsh repressive measures if they were caught performing in

5687-415: The trompette . The tirant adjusts the lateral pressure on the trompette and thereby sets the sensitivity of the buzzing bridge to changes in wheel velocity. When hard to trigger, the strike or the bridge is said "sec" (dry), "chien sec", or "coup sec". When easy to trigger, the strike or the bridge is said "gras" (fat), "chien gras", or "coup gras". There are various stylistic techniques that are used as

5808-524: The 1970s. Appraising the concept in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Robert Christgau said most "are profit-taking recaps marred by sound and format inappropriate to phonographic reproduction (you can't put sights, smells, or fellowship on audio tape). But for Joe Cocker and Bette Midler and Bob-Dylan -in-the-arena, the form makes a compelling kind of sense." Among

5929-443: The 25-minute mark. The album Dopesmoker by Sleep contains only a single track, but the composition is over 63 minutes long. There are no formal rules against artists such as Pinhead Gunpowder referring to their own releases under thirty minutes as "albums". If an album becomes too long to fit onto a single vinyl record or CD, it may be released as a double album where two vinyl LPs or compact discs are packaged together in

6050-594: The Budapest Film Orchestra and a military men's choir. Other sessions included one in New York, where the band recorded along the Hudson River to be near water. Having produced most of the album themselves, the band decided to bring in someone else for the mixing. Tracks were sent to several well-known mixers/producers to experiment with and after deciding they liked Nick Launay 's ideas best,

6171-498: The Czech Republic respectively. In Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian the instrument is called "wheel lyre" ( колёсная лира , колісна ліра , колавая ліра ). In Poland it is called "cranked lyre" (lira korbowa). Leier , lant , and related terms today are generally used to refer to members of the lute or lyre family, but historically had a broader range of meaning and were used for many types of stringed instruments. In

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6292-571: The French vielle à roue , the Hungarian tekerőlant , and the Spanish zanfoña . In Ukraine , a variety called the lira was widely used by blind street musicians, most of whom were purged by Stalin in the 1930s (see Persecuted bandurists ). The hurdy-gurdy tradition is well-developed particularly in Hungary , Poland , Belarus , Southeastern France and Ukraine . In Ukraine, it is known as

6413-496: The Hollies described his experience in developing a solo album as follows: "The thing that I go through that results in a solo album is an interesting process of collecting songs that can't be done, for whatever reason, by a lot of people". A solo album may also represent the departure of the performer from the group. A compilation album is a collection of material from various recording projects or various artists, assembled with

6534-477: The Lighthouse", which is loosely based around the fable. This was followed on February 5, 2007, with the band releasing a promotional pamphlet as a JPEG image on their website that included album-related imagery and much of the French and English text from "The Wolf and the Fox". In October 2007, Arcade Fire created a website at beonlineb.com with the date October 6 displayed on it. After speculation over what

6655-523: The Ship Even Sank ), Neon Bible was cited as an example of the popularization of indie rock. Neon Bible received widespread critical acclaim. Publications like NME and IGN praised the album for its grandiose nature, while Rolling Stone and Uncut opined that it resulted in a distant and overblown sound. Following the release of Funeral (2004), which had been recorded in an attic studio known as Hotel2Tango , Arcade Fire decided

6776-591: The United Kingdom, the criteria for the UK Albums Chart is that a recording counts as an "album" if it either has more than four tracks or lasts more than 25 minutes. Sometimes shorter albums are referred to as mini-albums or EPs . Albums such as Tubular Bells , Amarok , and Hergest Ridge by Mike Oldfield , and Yes's Close to the Edge , include fewer than four tracks, but still surpass

6897-621: The United States, the United Kingdom and Portugal. Neon Bible was out-charted only by Notorious B.I.G. 's greatest hits compilation in the U.S. and the Kaiser Chiefs 's Yours Truly, Angry Mob in the UK. It was certified gold by the CRIA in Canada in March 2007. Upon release, Neon Bible garnered universal acclaim, receiving an 87—the seventh highest score of 2007—from review aggregator Metacritic . NME reviewer Mark Beaumont commented

7018-731: The Year . Frontman Win Butler stated in an interview that the album title is derived from him being particularly attracted to the image, not from the John Kennedy Toole novel The Neon Bible . Largely due to band member Régine Chassagne 's Haitian ancestry, the band has tried to raise support and awareness for the socio-economic problems in Haiti throughout their career. The Haitian people had 15,000 dollars donated to them on November 5, 2005. On December 26, 2006, they supported Haitian charity organization Partners In Health by releasing

7139-427: The album "is a climactic monolith of a record in the grand tradition of melodic transatlantic clamour rock." The A.V. Club reviewer Kyle Ryan interpreted the album as a commentary on the post-9/11 American world, saying that "the band is seemingly sending a beacon to other reasonable people forced underground by the world's insanity." Stylus contributor Derek Miller saw the album in similar terms, saying that while

7260-413: The album can be cheaper than buying a domestically released version, Japanese releases often feature bonus tracks to incentivize domestic purchase. Commercial sheet music is published in conjunction with the release of a new album (studio, compilation, soundtrack, etc.). A matching folio songbook is a compilation of the music notation of all the songs included in that particular album. It typically has

7381-449: The album is a "grandiose project, one teeming with jubilant enthusiasm and reverent abundance." Other publications agreed, but viewed some of these same elements negatively. Rolling Stone reviewer David Fricke wrote that he was surprised such a large band could "sound so distant here so often," saying that "the result is a huge sound that only sparkles on the edges, leaving Butler alone in the middle." However, Rolling Stone also named it

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7502-570: The album is a photograph of a six-foot neon sign that the band commissioned for use while on tour. In the photograph used for the cover, the lighted Bible is caught in mid-flicker. Rolling Stone named the artwork one of the five best of the year. AOL Music cited the cover as an example of an artist "keeping artwork alive." The artwork would go on to win Tracy Maurice and François Miron the Juno Award for best CD/DVD Artwork Design of

7623-480: The album touches on "violence, paranoia, the falsity of simple labor, the war-call of organized religion—a what's what of indie turmoil after 2003" the band go further to the point where its "thematic threads bind the songs." Robert Christgau gave the album a "A+" grade, saying that Butler and co. "thud rather than thunder. But what a loud and joyous thud it is." IGN , in giving the album 8.9 out of 10, said "the playing overall seems tighter and more cohesive" and that

7744-526: The album's artwork on its cover and, in addition to sheet music, it includes photos of the artist. Most pop and rock releases come in standard Piano/Vocal/Guitar notation format (and occasionally Easy Piano / E-Z Play Today). Rock-oriented releases may also come in Guitar Recorded Versions edition, which are note-for-note transcriptions written directly from artist recordings. Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one-half of

7865-452: The album, of outrage at U.S. leadership in the early 2000s, and a need to escape our social climate, sadly, remain pertinent today." All tracks are written by Arcade Fire. All lead vocals by Win Butler unless otherwise noted. Personnel adapted from album liner notes. Arcade Fire (mixing, production, arrangement): Other personnel: Shipments figures based on certification alone. Studio album An album

7986-463: The album. If a pop or rock album contained tracks released separately as commercial singles , they were conventionally placed in particular positions on the album. During the sixties, particularly in the UK, singles were generally released separately from albums. Today, many commercial albums of music tracks feature one or more singles, which are released separately to radio, TV or the Internet as

8107-500: The alternative forgólant both mean "turning lute". Another Hungarian name for the instrument is nyenyere , which is thought to be an onomatopoeic reference to the repetitive warble produced by a wheel that is not even. This term was considered derogatory in the Hungarian lowlands, but was the normal term for the instrument on Csepel island directly south of Budapest. The equivalent names ninera and niněra are used in Slovakia and

8228-479: The amount of participation a band member can solicit from other members of their band, and still have the album referred to as a solo album. One reviewer wrote that Ringo Starr 's third venture, Ringo , "[t]echnically... wasn't a solo album because all four Beatles appeared on it". Three of the four members of the Beatles released solo albums while the group was officially still together. A performer may record

8349-477: The attention of the upper classes, where it acquired tremendous popularity among the nobility, with famous composers writing works for the hurdy-gurdy. The most famous of these is Nicolas Chédeville 's Il pastor Fido , published under the name Antonio Vivaldi . At this time the most common style of hurdy-gurdy developed, the six-string vielle à roue . This instrument has two melody strings and four drones. The drone strings are tuned so that by turning them on or off,

8470-510: The audience, comments by the performers between pieces, improvisation, and so on. They may use multitrack recording direct from the stage sound system (rather than microphones placed among the audience), and can employ additional manipulation and effects during post-production to enhance the quality of the recording. Notable early live albums include the double album of Benny Goodman , The Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert , released in 1950. Live double albums later became popular during

8591-401: The band invited him to their studio to work on the songs further. For a month Launay worked with the album's engineer and co-producer Marcus Strauss on the mixing of each song, with the band regularly driving up from Montreal to assess their progress. In an interview with HitQuarters , Launay described the mixing process as a "playful thing". Beginning work on Neon Bible immediately following

8712-406: The best selling live albums are Eric Clapton 's Unplugged (1992), selling over 26 million copies, Garth Brooks ' Double Live (1998), over 21 million copies, and Peter Frampton 's Frampton Comes Alive! (1976), over 11 million copies. In Rolling Stone ' s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time , 18 albums were live albums. A solo album , in popular music , is an album recorded by

8833-448: The bridge lifts from the soundboard and vibrates, creating a buzzing sound. The buzzing bridge is thought to have been borrowed from the tromba marina ( monochord ), a bowed string instrument. During the late Renaissance, two characteristic shapes of hurdy-gurdies developed. The first was guitar-shaped and the second had a rounded lute -type body made of staves. The lute-like body is especially characteristic of French instruments. By

8954-411: The buzzing bridge in place (and also serves as a bridge for additional drone strings on some instruments). The free end of the dog (called the hammer ) rests on the soundboard of the hurdy-gurdy and is more or less free to vibrate. When the wheel is turned regularly and not too fast the pressure on the string (called the trompette on French instruments) holds the bridge in place, sounding a drone. When

9075-446: The cassette tape throughout the 1970s and early 1980s; the popularity of the cassette reached its peak during the late 1980s before sharply declining during the 1990s. The cassette had largely disappeared by the first decade of the 2000s. Most albums are recorded in a studio , although they may also be recorded in a concert venue , at home, in the field, or a mix of places. The time frame for completely recording an album varies between

9196-415: The crank is struck, the hammer lifts up suddenly and vibrates against the soundboard, producing a characteristic rhythmic buzz that is used as an articulation or to provide percussive effect, especially in dance pieces. On French-style instruments, the sensitivity of the buzzing bridge can be altered by turning a peg called a tirant in the tailpiece of the instrument that is connected by a wire or thread to

9317-431: The desired rhythm. A long buzz can also be achieved by accelerating the wheel with the handle. It is called either "un glissé" (a slide) or "une trainée" (a streak). More accomplished players are able to achieve six, eight, or even twelve buzzes within one turn of the wheel. On the Hungarian tekerő the same control is achieved by using a wedge called the recsegőék (control wedge, or literally "buzzer wedge") that pushes

9438-731: The drone string downward. In traditional tekerő playing, the buzzing bridge is controlled entirely by the wrist of the player and has a very different sound and rhythmic possibilities from those available on French instruments. Regional types of hurdy-gurdies since the Renaissance can also be classified based on wheel size and the presence or absence (and type) of a buzzing bridge. The following description of various types uses this framework: Small-wheeled (wheel diameter less than 14 cm, or about 5.5 inches) instruments are traditionally found in Central and Eastern Europe. They feature

9559-405: The eighteenth century, the term hurdy-gurdy was also applied to a small, portable barrel organ or street organ (a cranked box instrument with a number of organ pipes, a bellows and a barrel with pins that rotated and programmed the tunes) that was frequently played by poor buskers , street musicians specifically called organ grinders . Such organs require only the turning of the crank to play;

9680-474: The end of the 17th century changing musical tastes demanded greater polyphonic capabilities than the hurdy-gurdy could offer and pushed the instrument to the lowest social classes; as a result it acquired names like the German Bauernleier 'peasant's lyre' and Bettlerleier 'beggar's lyre'. During the 18th century, however, French Rococo tastes for rustic diversions brought the hurdy-gurdy back to

9801-624: The field – as with early blues recordings, in prison, or with a mobile recording unit such as the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio . Most albums are studio albums —that is, they are recorded in a recording studio with equipment meant to give those overseeing the recording as much control as possible over the sound of the album. They minimize external noises and reverberations and have highly sensitive microphones and sound mixing equipment. Band members may record their parts in separate rooms or at separate times, listening to

9922-533: The first to include violinist Sarah Neufeld among the band's core line-up. Neon Bible became Arcade Fire's highest-charting album at the time, debuting on the Billboard 200 at number two, selling 92,000 copies in its first week and more than 400,000 to date. Being released within a month of similarly successful releases by The Shins ( Wincing the Night Away ) and Modest Mouse ( We Were Dead Before

10043-500: The form of a prototype. Compact Cassettes became especially popular during the 1980s after the advent of the Sony Walkman , which allowed the person to control what they listened to. The Walkman was convenient because of its size, the device could fit in most pockets and often came equipped with a clip for belts or pants. The compact cassette used double-sided magnetic tape to distribute music for commercial sale. The music

10164-480: The form of boxed sets, although in that case the work is still usually considered to be an album. Material (music or sounds) is stored on an album in sections termed tracks. A music track (often simply referred to as a track) is an individual song or instrumental recording. The term is particularly associated with popular music where separate tracks are known as album tracks; the term is also used for other formats such as EPs and singles . When vinyl records were

10285-560: The fourth best album of the year. Uncut ' s three-star review of the album said that "at its overblown worst Neon Bible is one of those records that takes itself too seriously to be taken seriously." Neon Bible was a finalist for the 2007 Polaris Music Prize . Neon Bible was nominated for Best Alternative Album for the 50th Annual Grammy Awards . It was #4 in NME albums of the year, fourth in Rolling Stone ' s list of albums of

10406-467: The general form elsewhere. The box form symphonia is also commonly found among players of early music and historical re-enactors. Historically, strings were made of gut , which is still a preferred material today and modern instruments are mounted with violin (D or A) and cello (A, G, C) strings. However, metal-wound strings have become common in the twentieth century, especially for the heavier drone strings or for lower melody strings if octave tuning

10527-487: The hurdy-gurdy is often used interchangeably or along with bagpipes. It is mostly used in Occitan , Aragonese , Cajun French , Asturian, Cantabrian, Galician , Hungarian , and Slavic folk music. It can also be seen in early music settings such as medieval , renaissance or baroque music . One or more of the gut strings called 'trompette' usually passes over a buzzing bridge called the 'chien' that can be made to produce

10648-433: The instrument can be played in multiple keys (e.g., C and G, or G and D). During this time the hurdy-gurdy also spread further to Central Europe, where further variations developed in western Slavic countries, German-speaking areas and Hungary (see the list of types below for more information on them). Most types of hurdy-gurdy were essentially extinct by the early twentieth century, but a few have survived. The best-known are

10769-413: The instrument of the character Manuel, played by Spencer Tracy . The instrument came into a new public consciousness when Donovan released his hit pop song " Hurdy Gurdy Man " in 1968. Although the song does not use a hurdy-gurdy, the repeated reference to the instrument in the song's lyrics sparked curiosity and interest among young people, eventually resulting in an annual hurdy-gurdy music festival in

10890-588: The later '30s, record companies began releasing albums of previously released recordings of popular music in albums organized by performer, singers or bands, or by type of music, boogie-woogie , for example. When Columbia introduced the Long Playing record format in 1948, it was natural the term album would continue. Columbia expected that the record size distinction in 78s would continue, with classical music on 12" records and popular music on 10" records, and singles on 78s. Columbia's first popular 10" LP in fact

11011-492: The longer 12-inch 78s, playing around 4–5 minutes per side. For example, in 1924, George Gershwin recorded a drastically shortened version of his new seventeen-minute composition Rhapsody in Blue with Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra. The recording was issued on both sides of a single record, Victor 55225 and ran for 8m 59s. By 1910, though some European record companies had issued albums of complete operas and other works,

11132-483: The mid-1930s, record companies had adopted the album format for classical music selections that were longer than the roughly eight minutes that fit on both sides of a classical 12" 78 rpm record. Initially the covers were plain, with the name of the selection and performer in small type. In 1938, Columbia Records hired the first graphic designer in the business to design covers, others soon followed and colorful album covers cover became an important selling feature. By

11253-487: The mid-1960s to the late 1970s when the Compact Cassette format took over. The format is regarded as an obsolete technology, and was relatively unknown outside the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. Stereo 8 was created in 1964 by a consortium led by Bill Lear of Lear Jet Corporation , along with Ampex , Ford Motor Company , General Motors , Motorola , and RCA Victor Records . It

11374-495: The music is coded by pinned barrels, perforated paper rolls, and, more recently, by electronic modules. The French call these organs Orgue de Barbarie ("Barbary organ"), while the Germans and Dutch say Drehorgel and draaiorgel ("turned organ"), instead of Drehleier ("turning lyre"). In Czech, the organ is called flašinet . In her overview of the instrument's history, Palmer recorded twenty-three different forms, and there

11495-443: The other parts of the track with headphones to keep the timing right. In the 2000s, with the advent of digital recording , it became possible for musicians to record their part of a song in another studio in another part of the world, and send their contribution over digital channels to be included in the final product. Recordings that are done in one take without overdubbing or multi-tracking are termed "live", even when done in

11616-414: The other. The user would stack the two records onto the spindle of an automatic record changer, with side 1 on the bottom and side 2 (on the other record) on top. Side 1 would automatically drop onto the turntable and be played. When finished, the tone arm's position would trigger a mechanism which moved the arm out of the way, dropped the record with side 2, and played it. When both records had been played,

11737-449: The player turns the crank, striking the wheel at various points in its revolution. This technique is often known by its French term, the coup-de-poignet (or, more simply, the shortened coup ). The percussion is transmitted to the wheel by striking the handle with the thumb, fingers or base of the thumb at one or more of four points in the revolution of the wheel (often described in terms of the clock face, 12, 3, 6, and 9 o'clock) to achieve

11858-464: The practice of issuing albums was not widely taken up by American record companies until the 1920s. By about 1910, bound collections of empty sleeves with a paperboard or leather cover, similar to a photograph album, were sold as record albums that customers could use to store their records (the term "record album" was printed on some covers). These albums came in both 10-inch and 12-inch sizes. The covers of these bound books were wider and taller than

11979-406: The primary medium for audio recordings a track could be identified visually from the grooves and many album covers or sleeves included numbers for the tracks on each side. On a compact disc the track number is indexed so that a player can jump straight to the start of any track. On digital music stores such as iTunes the term song is often used interchangeably with track regardless of whether there

12100-642: The prominence of the French tradition, many instrument and performance terms used in English are commonly taken from the French, and players generally need to know these terms to read relevant literature. Such common terms include: According to the Oxford English Dictionary , the mid 18th century origin of the term hurdy-gurdy is onomatopoeic in origin, after the repetitive warble in pitch that characterizes instruments with solid wooden wheels that have warped due to changes in humidity or after

12221-404: The record industry as a standard format for the "album". Apart from relatively minor refinements and the important later addition of stereophonic sound capability, it has remained the standard format for vinyl albums. The term "album" was extended to other recording media such as 8-track tape , cassette tape , compact disc , MiniDisc , and digital albums, as they were introduced. As part of

12342-623: The record not touching the shelf, and the term was applied to the collection. In the early nineteenth century, "album" was occasionally used in the titles of some classical music sets, such as Robert Schumann 's Album for the Young Opus 68, a set of 43 short pieces. With the advent of 78 rpm records in the early 1900s, the typical 10-inch disc could only hold about three minutes of sound per side, so almost all popular recordings were limited to around three minutes in length. Classical-music and spoken-word items generally were released on

12463-451: The recording, and lyrics or librettos . Historically, the term "album" was applied to a collection of various items housed in a book format. In musical usage, the word was used for collections of short pieces of printed music from the early nineteenth century. Later, collections of related 78s were bundled in book-like albums (one side of a 78 rpm record could hold only about 3.5 minutes of sound). When LP records were introduced,

12584-497: The records inside, allowing the record album to be placed on a shelf upright, like a book, suspending the fragile records above the shelf and protecting them. In the 1930s, record companies began issuing collections of 78s by one performer or of one type of music in specially assembled albums, typically with artwork on the front cover and liner notes on the back or inside cover. Most albums included three or four records, with two sides each, making six or eight compositions per album. By

12705-452: The release and distribution Compact Discs . The 2010s saw a revival of Compact Cassettes by independent record labels and DIY musicians who preferred the format because of its difficulty to share over the internet . The compact disc format replaced both the vinyl record and the cassette as the standard for the commercial mass-market distribution of physical music albums. After the introduction of music downloading and MP3 players such as

12826-409: The song " Intervention " on iTunes and donating the proceeds. However, they accidentally uploaded "Black Wave/Bad Vibrations", the track after "Intervention" on Neon Bible . While the song was quickly removed once the problem was discovered, file sharers quickly circulated it on various P2P networks. On his blog, Win Butler quipped, "I guess it is sort of charming that we can send the wrong song to

12947-456: The sound of the buzzing-bridge. Alternately, the term is thought to come from the Scottish and northern English term for uproar or disorder, hirdy-girdy or from hurly-burly , an old English term for noise or commotion. The instrument is sometimes more descriptively called a wheel fiddle in English, but this term is rarely used among players of the instrument. Another possible derivation

13068-415: The streets of major cities until 1902, when the authorities were asked by ethnographers attending the 12th All-Russian Archaeological conference to stop persecuting them. The hurdy-gurdy is the instrument played by Der Leiermann , the street musician portrayed in the last, melancholy song of Schubert 's Winterreise . It is also featured and played prominently in the film Captains Courageous (1937) as

13189-464: The user would pick up the stack, turn it over, and put them back on the spindle—sides 3 and 4 would then play in sequence. Record changers were used for many years of the LP era, but eventually fell out of use. 8-track tape (formally Stereo 8: commonly known as the eight-track cartridge, eight-track tape, or simply eight-track) is a magnetic tape sound recording technology popular in the United States from

13310-425: The vibration of its strings into electrical signals. Similar to electric guitars , the signals are transmitted to an instrument amplifier or reproduced by synthesizer in a modified form. Electronic hurdy-gurdies, on the other hand, have no strings. The signals for the melody strings are generated electronically by the keys and also in combination with the rotation of the wheel. The signals for drone strings and

13431-500: The website was about, including rumors of new material or a live streaming of a concert, it was eventually revealed to be a video for "Neon Bible", featuring Win Butler's face and hands, which the viewer can interact with during the song. ("Beonlineb" is an anagram of "Neon Bible.") "Neon Bible" was the first song on the album to have a music video. Arcade Fire began their tour in support of the album in January and February 2007, playing

13552-409: The wheel surface adjusted by having small pieces of paper placed between the strings and the bridge, a process called shimming . Shimming and cottoning are connected processes since either one can affect the geometry of the instrument's strings. In some types of hurdy-gurdy, notably the French vielle à roue ('fiddle with a wheel') and the Hungarian tekerőlant ( tekerő for short), makers have added

13673-421: The whole world with a click of a mouse... Oh well." On December 28, 2006, the band allowed listeners to listen to their first single, "Black Mirror", by calling the number (866) NEON-BIBLE, extension number 7777. The song was also streamed on the band's website beginning on January 6, 2007. The following day, the band revealed a variety of information about the album through a YouTube video. The video, which played

13794-488: The year and album of the year in Q in December 2007. The album won the 2008 Juno Award for Alternative Album of the Year . Neon Bible was released in three versions. They included: In 2019, Merge Records (Arcade Fire's label for their earlier records, including Neon Bible ), released a full-album cover version of Neon Bible by American rock band A Giant Dog . Vocalist Sabrina Ellis commented that "the themes in

13915-592: Was Frank Sinatra's first album, the four-record eight-song The Voice of Frank Sinatra , originally issued in 1946. RCA's introduction of the smaller 45 rpm format later in 1948 disrupted Columbia's expectations. By the mid-1950s, 45s dominated the singles market and 12" LPs dominated the album market and both 78s and 10" LPs were discontinued. In the 1950s albums of popular music were also issued on 45s, sold in small heavy paper-covered "gate-fold" albums with multiple discs in sleeves or in sleeves in small boxes. This format disappeared around 1960. Sinatra's "The Voice"

14036-548: Was a further development of the similar Stereo-Pak four-track cartridge created by Earl "Madman" Muntz . A later quadraphonic version of the format was announced by RCA in April 1970 and first known as Quad-8, then later changed to just Q8. The Compact Cassette was a popular medium for distributing pre-recorded music from the early 1970s to the early 2000s. The first "Compact Cassette" was introduced by Philips in August 1963 in

14157-414: Was from this that in medieval and modern times, album came to denote a book of blank pages in which verses, autographs, sketches, photographs and the like are collected. This in turn led to the modern meaning of an album as a collection of audio recordings issued as a single item. The first audio albums were actually published by the publishers of photograph albums. Single 78 rpm records were sold in

14278-399: Was issued in 1952 on two extended play 45s, with two songs on each side, in both packagings. The 10-inch and 12-inch LP record (long play), or 33 + 1 ⁄ 3   rpm microgroove vinyl record, is a gramophone record format introduced by Columbia Records in 1948. A single LP record often had the same or similar number of tunes as a typical album of 78s, and it was adopted by

14399-419: Was originally titled "Joe Simpson (Antichrist Television Blues)" in reference to the father and manager of singers Jessica and Ashlee Simpson . Butler chose to remove Simpson's name from the title, keeping the subtitle parentheses intact. Butler would introduce "(Antichrist Television Blues)" during live performances as "a song about what happens when fathers grow up to manage their daughters." The artwork for

14520-423: Was played by two people, one of whom turned the crank while the other pulled the keys upward. Pulling keys upward is cumbersome, so only slow tunes could be played on the organistrum. The pitches on the organistrum were set according to Pythagorean temperament and the instrument was primarily used in monastic and church settings to accompany choral music. Abbot Odo of Cluny (died 942) is supposed to have written

14641-411: Was the dominant form of recorded music expression and consumption from the mid-1960s to the early 21st century, a period known as the album era . Vinyl LPs are still issued, though album sales in the 21st-century have mostly focused on CD and MP3 formats. The 8-track tape was the first tape format widely used alongside vinyl from 1965 until being phased out by 1983, being gradually supplanted by

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