"Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)" is a song by Canadian rock band Arcade Fire, and the first track on their debut album Funeral. It is the first of the four-part "Neighborhood" series found on Funeral.
"Tunnels" was the band's first single, released several months before the album as a 7" vinyl record on June 20, 2004, to a pressing of 1500 copies. The B-side to the album is a recording of the song "My Buddy" by swing musician Alvino Rey. Rey is the maternal grandfather of Arcade Fire members Win andWilliam Butler.
In August 2009, the song was named #10 on Pitchfork Media's "Top 500 Tracks of the 2000s".[1] In a 2012 Beats Per Minute (website) article on The Essential Arcade Fire, it was named the band's most essential track by writer Lucien Flores. [2] Flores writes, "'Tunnels' has all the elements of a great Arcade Fire song: a head-bobbing rhythm section, lyrics that harken back to an imperfect past, a seamless blend of instruments, and a cathartic coda." It is also the highest rated single of the 2000s on popular music ratings website rateyourmusic.com.
Contents[]
Track listing[edit][]
7" single[3]
- "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)" - 4:48
- "My Buddy" (Alvino Rey Orchestra, live radio broadcast, 1940) - 2:32
Personnel[edit][]
Arcade Fire
- Win Butler - vocals, Jaguar Electric Guitar
- Regine Chassagne - backing vocals, drums
- Richard Reed Parry - piano, backing vocals, organ, engineer, recording
- Tim Kingsbury - bass, backing vocals
- Howard Bilerman - Electric Guitar, engineer, recording
- Will Butler - percussion, backing vocals
Additional musicians
- Sarah Neufeld – violin, string arrangements
- Owen Pallett – violin, string arrangements
- Michael Olsen – cello
- Pietro Amato – horn
- Anita Fust – harp