“If there’s no music up in heaven, what’s it for?” Arcade Fire frontman Win Butler asks calmly, but there is an undercurrent of annoyance, as if demanding how deities can be so stupid to leave his favorite thing out of something supposedly perfect. God’s logic aside, we are in a heaven of sorts without His help, thanks to the new Arcade Fire album, entitled “Reflektor.”

Even before the release date, though, the entire music press was swept in a Christmas-like hype, thanks to the second most satisfying moment of the 2011 Grammys, where Arcade Fire took home Album of the Year for “The Suburbs” (Esperanza Spalding kicking Justin Bieber down on Best New Artist will always be special, though). After bathing in press and praise, Arcade Fire disappeared up the mountain for the next two years. Now it is like no time passed and everyone is raving as much as they did then.

The album has deep cultural roots, due to a tour of Haiti, where Butler’s wife and musical partner Régine Chassagne hails from. While there, the band saw the poverty and pain, but also a spirit of pure musical enjoyment, and both appear in the lyrics. They also dipped into the culture, evidenced by the appropriations of Haitian rara rhythm patterns given excellent indie-approved dance treatments courtesy of LCD Soundsystem mastermind James Murphy.

The dance-rock vibes have a “Let’s Dance”-era David Bowie feel (apparently he thinks so too, since he is on the title track), and while there are many different feels, the rhythms are often just looped platforms for the lyrics, which reference Orpheus and Eurydice (possible marital problems?), religious missionaries and the aforementioned Haitian poverty.

While I am loving the grooves Arcade Fire have tapped into on this album, it is a pretty ambitious album that is hard to listen to. You have got to come with an attentive pair of ears and a sharp mind, and even then you will not get it on the first play-through. My favorites are the differentiating combo of  “It’s Never Over (Oh Orpheus)” and “Awful Sound (Oh Eurydice),” the pocket grooves of the title track and “We Exist,” and the regretful ambience of “Here Comes The Night Time II.”

Even if nobody gets the point, I am pretty sure they are going to win another Grammy anyway, because it is Arcade Fire. And you know what, they deserve it for daring to challenge our puny brains.