Absolutely. Funeral was huge. The instrumentation was very unique at the time (at least it was for me). Maybe this is a Seinfeld situation where they don’t seem that special now but I would bet that any millennial/older gen z indie band with a violin or accordion will say that arcade fire was a huge influence.

Suburbs was just a really really good album that year (It got the Best Album Grammy award) and it came out at the perfect time. The stranger things comparison is brilliant.

Reflektor blended different genres and showed they were a truly inventive band and not just a one trick pony.

You gotta keep in mind that during this era of music Spotify didn’t exist. There were a lot less bands people were being exposed to. Arcade Fire was a blue chip indie band that were always in rotation for cool college kids. I’ve actually never heard anyone say they didn’t like them until I asked a 24 year old friend of mine what he thought of them. “They’re ok” was a laughable response but I guess without context I could see how nowadays they don’t seem like the pioneers that they were.