Well, what's left to say, exactly? At the turn of the year, who'd have placed money on a compositionally quirky Montreal outfit charming the nation's - no, the world's - music press into unprecedented rapture with all the ease of a much-maligned Libertine?

Arcade Fire's 'Rebellion (Lies)' is a quite magical, wonderfully and woefully desperate-sounding, beautifully arranged and precisely executed four-and-something minutes of A-grade indie rock. It's the sound you wanted Mercury Rev to make after Deserter's Songs, or what a sunnier-dispositioned Interpol might craft if they'd been schooled in folk music rather than whatever gave birth to their gloom-scapes. It is pure aural escapism, a comforting temporary shelter from a world that's, by all accounts, absolutely bent on self-destruction.

If you've yet to lend an ear to the album Funeral, this is an absolutely essential purchase. Fantastically, the ever-so twee yet rather creepy B-side 'Brazil', an arrangement dating from 1939, is also adorable - its closing piano ripple alone is worth the asking price. Just go with the critical and commercial flow on this one, okay?