Month Of May first appeared as the b-side of The Suburbs 12” single that Arcade Fire released earlier this year. This was probably intended to confound expectations a little.

Month Of May is Arcade Fire’s most out-and-out punk rock excursion to date. The band has always flirted heavily with post-punk influences but this is proper three-chord, first wave stuff - Arcade Fire do Stiff Little Fingers. Almost.

It’s a pretty great deviation too; those choppy, Telecaster-sounding, power chords would make Joe Strummer proud. Meanwhile, Drummer Jeremy Gara seems to be channelling the spirit of The Stooges’ Fun House.

For all its retro charm the vocals keep Month Of May up-to-date (“Two-thousand nine/Two-thousand ten/I want to make a record/About how I felt then…”) and make nice little references to lyric themes from tracks two and three (“The kids are still standing/With their arms folded tight…”).