Arcade Fire’s Cringeworthy Dystopia

The love song, the breakup song, the party song—all are excellent pop traditions, but a good doomsday song can do the work of all three. What connects David Bowie’s “Five Years” to Prince’s “1999” to Lana Del Rey’s “The Greatest” aren’t just visions of civilizational collapse. All summon a sense of final-prom-before-the-bomb yearning through celebratory arrangements, impressionistic lyrics, and deep reserves of creativity and empathy. Bo Burnham’s “That Funny Feeling” joined the canon last year by turning the distressing ridiculousness of Now : “The live-action , the Pepsi Halftime Show / 20,000 years of this, seven more to go.”