In Defense of… is a series on Allston Pudding where we defend a band or musical topic that gets undeserved mad hate. Haters to the left. Forget the haters ‘cause somebody loves ya. Our first installment is Arcade Fire.

I’d like to say Arcade Fire have been flying high since their 2011 Grammy win for “Album of the Year, cheap ” but unlike a lot of musicians who let it get to their head (ahem U2 and Taylor Swift, cure I’m looking at you Bono and blonde giant), hospital Arcade Fire have basically been laying low and doing what they always do, writing music. So what’s with all the hate lately?

Arcade Fire has received a lot of hate recently for its Grammys follow-up double-album Reflektor, most misguided of which, came from the Washington Post. Guy Aroch claims that Arcade Fire is “devoid of wit and subtlety,” while making snarky comments about the members’ boring sex lives. I’m not sure how he knows about their sex lives, but I will leave that information with him. Speaking purely on lyrical content, Aroch is right about subtlety. Win Butler’s lyrics have never been all that subtle, but when you make political music, subtlety is the last thing you want. Your message needs to be ingrained in your audience’s mind and consume all thoughts they previously once experienced.

Aroch also makes an attempted blow to Arcade Fire by bringing up their use of bongos, most prevalent in the leading single “Reflektor.” Holy Jeebus! You mean a band has added different instruments to experiment with their sound and added more complicated layers to make you pick apart their music! Well I’ll be damned. Arcade Fire may be doing what they always do, vaguely political songs relating to growing up in the numb life of the digital age, but they don’t do a boring job at it. Production from James Murphy also played a huge role in this album and you can hear the LCD Soundsystem-isms in it, and it’s nothing short of beautiful.

Let’s take a look at Arcade Fire over their four full-length albums. Funeral released in 2004, and to be frank, it has been Arcade Fire’s best album. I don’t mean that in the hipster “guys they used to be so good and now they suck” way that a lot of obnoxious people will say. I actually mean this, but their genius didn’t end there. The album begins a concept of suburban life that continues in 2010’s The Suburbs. 2007’s Neon Bible, which inspired James Murphy to want to work with them, shows Arcade Fire experimenting with more electronic elements and deeply layered tracks that continue with Reflektor.

I think I’m hinting at a pattern here, but what I’m trying to get across is that Arcade Fire is the same that it’s always been. They’ve always made great music that’s deeply layered, shows a continued concept, makes the listener really think about all the layers and instruments subtly hinted within the rhythms, and it’s catchy as all hell. Don’t try to tell me that you don’t dance alone in your bedroom to “Month of May” or is that just me?