Arcade Fire announces new album WE
The band shared the first single, called"The Lightning I, II," from the upcoming record
Aux News Arcade Fire
Arcade Fire is ready to usher us into a new post-Everything Now era. After announcing a surprise show in New Orleans benefitting Ukraine at the beginning of the week and teasing new music for the past month, Arcade Fire has now revealed what’s coming next: WE. The new album is arriving on May 6 via Columbia Records.
In a message shared in the press release, Win Butler writes,
“My grandmother read me a book when I was a little kid that had the word ‘WE’ stamped into its cover in broken 1920s gold leaf. As my eyes grew heavy, in the bedroom my father slept in as a child, I wondered…What is ‘WE’? Who are ‘WE’?
There are questions that can rattle around in your head for a lifetime…but once in a while the centuries grint to a halt and WE are given the precious time to ask again in our child-like inner voice what is ‘WE’? Hiding in the shadows of Carl Jung is the WE that holds each other back and tears each other down. The WE that whispers secrets and complains about paradise. Even heaven is too cold…
But also it is the ‘ONE’ of Marley, the Buddha and Abraham. It’s the lightning strike of our magical mutual creation. It’s the root WE share made of the same dust as the stars WE pray to. It’s the dream of Martin Luther King Jr. and the iron of the nail on the church door of his namesake. It’s the innocence and the mistake, the universal flaw and the perfect imperfection.
The hipsters called it jazz. The hippies called it love. And we call it WE.”
According to the band, the album is divided between two sides. There’s the first side, “I,” which is “about [their] troubles” and its second side, “WE”, which is about “[their] love for one another.”
But let’s get to what you likely really want to know—what is this new album supposed to sound like? And is the band going back to the the sound fans love, or is the band still stuck in the polarizing ground covered in 2017's Everything Now?
The first single, “The Lightning I, II,” feels like a middle ground. The six minute-long track begins as a piano ballad but then there’s excitement injected into it, taking on a bouncy, twinkly turn. It’s a promising first glimpse at the forthcoming record.
WE tracklist
Side one: “I”
Age of Anxiety I
Age of Anxiety II (Rabbit Hole)
End of the Empire I-IV
Side two: “WE”
The Lightning I, II
Unconditional I (Lookout Kid)
Unconditional II (Race and Religion)
WE
12 Comments
Nobody cares about your boner
The hell
This is pretentious to the point of obscenity
nobody cares about you policing what other people enjoy, dickwagon
That’s a fine tune, but, as usual, it’s place in the context of the record is everything with Arcade Fire.
Man Tunnels still gets me pumped/worked up and AF was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen live (this was just when Funeral came out, before they got super big, so it was a smaller venue but DAMN did they bring it) but yeah I feel like it’s been diminishing returns since those highs.Still great though, just now there’s more haters blindly criticizing. Whatever.
You’re feeling the diminishing returns, yet still took time out to talk down to nameless “haters” who aren’t entitled to the same opinion? I’ve ebbed and flowed with this band; got to see them live before FUNERAL and loved both that and their self-released EP, NEON BIBLE’s attempts at political relevance were laughable, REFLEKTOR had no right to be a double record but eventually got under my skin (and fueled a great live show), and EVERYTHING NOW gave me nothing, then. The track listing and concept makes me wonder, but Lightning I, II is at least 1.25 good songs to my ear. I’m open to see where this goes.
You’re feeling the diminishing returns, yet still took time out to talk down to nameless “haters” who aren’t entitled to the same opinion?
Yes? Not sure why you have to shit on my opinion before giving your own (which actually more or less aligns with mine so, extra baffling.)Anyway moving on….. when and where did you see them? For me it was when Wolf Parade was opening for them. And ohhh man did that band open up worlds to me. But yeah at the end they did like a… parade down the aisle. SO cool.
commas are important. ‘man tunnels still gets me pumped’, lol
… well depending on the man… sure.
There are a few bands I like enough that I accept their pretentious goofy bullshit. Arcade Fire is one of them. I’m excited for this.
Pretension like that calls for way more interesting music.