After all the accolades that the eight member Montreal collective received after their last record Funeral, you would have thought that the band was capable of curing cancer or figuring out the problem with rising gas costs. Most people wouldn’t have gone that far, but it certainly built up a lot of hype for the follow-up to their breakthrough release.

The 11-song Neon Bible is a very diverse and somewhat entertaining album that suffers from trying a little too hard at times, but widely succeeds in other points. Bible gets off to a strong start with the Flaming Lips-esque “Black Mirror” and the mandolin strains of the key track off the album, “Keep The Car Running.” The two songs sound nothing alike, but come off as the most vibrant tracks of the album.

The album is bounces between overwrought organ based pop (“Intervention,” “My Body Is A Cage”) and synthy indie rock (“Black Wave/Bad Vibrations”), which keeps the listener on their toes enough to not think the album is one stale journey. Lead singer Win Butler has a haunting voice that mirrors Morrissey at times, but changes it up enough and keeps most of the incessant whining out of it.

Most of the tracks on Neon Bible are not going to reinvent the wheel; with most sounding like a natural progression from the Funeral album, like tracks such as “The Well And The Lighthouse.” With various instruments and even some ones not used much in modern rock today, the band keeps things inventive.

Neon Bible may suffer from some excess and has a big egotistical swinging for the fences type attitude, but the twists and turns on the album make it worth at least one or two listens.

GRADE: B