Transcendent music greets coming spring

“Neon Bible” (Merge) – The Arcade Fire

The clever pop of the Talking Heads, the world-saving bombast of U2, the reverb-soaked Americana of Springsteen, the beautiful despair of 1970s Bowie. All of these musicians are mentioned when people talk about the Arcade Fire, but the Canadian seven-piece has created its own sound – influenced by its predecessors, but invested with a unique vision.

The biggest indie band in the world has followed up its stunning 2004 debut album “Funeral” with the equally gorgeous “Neon Bible.” Eleven songs about war, fear, disaster and death, set against some of the most gloriously uplifting music you’ll ever hear.

Where “Funeral” was deeply personal and confessional, “Neon Bible” expands the scope to include much larger themes – as well as an enlargement of its already huge sound. There’s the basic rock foundation, plus violin, French horn, trumpet, organ, accordion, mandolin, hurdy-gurdy. You get the idea: there’s a lot going on here.

On “Intervention,” the world-weary frontman Win Butler questions the authority of church and state, while a vast pipe organ rumbles in the background, interspersed by twinkles of glockenspiel and Richard Parry’s keening guitar. Then there’s the paean to global warming, “Windowsill” (“the tide is rising, and it’s rising still, and I don’t want to see it at my windowsill”) and “Antichrist Television Blues,” which rails against reality TV, before exploding into a wordless vocal freakout by singer Regine Chassagne.

It’s heady stuff, but it never gets maudlin or over-the-top. “Neon Bible” manages to stay hopeful, amid the bleakness and anger. If there’s a band playing when the big one hits, it’ll be the Arcade Fire, merging joy and tragedy in equal measures.

“Children Running Through” (ATO) – Patty Griffin

On her fifth album, singer-songwriter and Old Town native Patty Griffin again collects the songs she has written over the past few years, many of which have been covered by artists as diverse as Solomon Burke and Jessica Simpson, and gives them her own intensely personal, soulful touch.

“Children Running Through” focuses squarely on two things: the strength of Griffin’s songs, and the strength of her voice. It has long been known that she’s one of the best songwriters in the business, but it’s her voice – a clear, ghostly thing, as piercing as an unexpected winter cold snap – that is as much a part of what makes this album so lovely.

Album opener “You’ll Remember” sets the pace of the album, a slow-burning, jazz-inflected torch song that is followed up by the edgier “Stay on the Road,” which is laced with punchy horns. Griffin’s country and gospel roots show throughout “Children,” as on the sparse, spine-tingling “Trapeze,” a folk ballad that musters some of the transcendent poetry of her spiritual forebears: Bob Dylan, Van Morrison and Bruce Springsteen.

“Children Running Through” may be Griffin’s best album to date. But given her track record, she may very well have an even better one in her.

“We Are One” (Razor & Tie) – Kelly Sweet

One so young shouldn’t be so accomplished.

With her debut album just hitting the shelves, Sweet, 18, is already drawing comparisons to Josh Groban, Norah Jones and Dido. And with her ethereal soprano, it’s easy to see why.

In this release which has been in the works for three years, with the guidance of producer Mark Portmann (Groban, Celine Dion), Sweet lovingly sculpts a dozen songs, including ones in French, Italian and Sanskrit. She also turns Aerosmith’s “Dream On” into a spiritual ballad.

Sometimes talent just comes naturally, rather than being a product that’s manufactured. Sweet, who grew up on Cape Cod around music with a jazz pianist father and an artist mother, is proof of that. Maybe performing and perfecting her vocals since the age of 3 has something to do with that.

Her single “Raincoat” shows off her jazz side. The title cut exhibits her spiritual side. What she’s singing on the three foreign-language songs, I can’t say, but they sound great.

Can an 18-year-old become an adult-contemporary darling? Why not? She sure sounds wise beyond her years.

Who knows? Maybe hits radio can reach out beyond songs with rap riffs and embrace some genuine music. Then Kelly Sweet could get the acclaim she deserves.