"Funeral" is the debut studio album by Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire, released on September 14, 2004, by Merge Records. The preliminary recordings took place in August 2003 at Hotel2Tango in Montreal, Quebec, and the project was completed later that year using analogue recording methods.
The album features five singles, with "Rebellion (Lies)" being the most notable, reaching #19 on the UK Singles Chart. Funeral received widespread critical acclaim and was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2005 for Best Alternative Music Album. It topped numerous year-end and decade-end lists and is frequently cited as one of the greatest albums of all time. On Metacritic, it had the second most appearances on end-of-decade Top 10 lists, just behind Radiohead's Kid A. In Rolling Stone's 2020 update of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, Funeral was ranked at number 500.
Funeral was largely recorded over the course of a week in August 2003 at the Hotel2Tango in Montreal, Quebec. Additional recording took place at Régine Chassagne and Win Butler's apartment, with the album being completed in 2004. The production cost of the album was estimated to be around $10,000.
The album's title was chosen to reflect the personal losses experienced by several band members during its creation. Régine Chassagne's grandmother passed away in June 2003, Win and William Butler's grandfather, swing musician Alvino Rey, died in February 2004, and Richard Reed Parry's aunts passed away in April 2004.
