I got into Arcade Fire pretty late in the game. I’d been exposed to a lot off of Neon Bible and Funeral but never really got into them until after The Suburbs got huge and won the Grammy. Since then I’ve gone back and I love all of their albums. Off of the Funeral album this is one of the stand out tracks for me, along with “Rebellion (Lies).” I like the somewhat melancholy feel, and the lyrics are great (which is not something I generally pay much attention to outside of hip-hop)

My take on the meaning is that the oldest sibling of this family broke through all of their parents’ expectations and boundaries, and rebelled against their wishes.  This ultimately led to them alienating themselves form the family, and possibly being disowned by the parents. They’re using the comparison to Laïka, the Soviet space dog and first animal to successfully orbit the Earth, who died while in space, but proved that humans and animals could survive the initial launch into space and paved the way for space travel. An interesting metaphor for breaking out of the expectations of your family and doing your own thing.

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Last time I heard it: Sometime in the last month. It pops up a lot when I shuffle my most popular playlists.