Arcade Fire’s new album has finally been announced. WE is out May 6 via Columbia. The album was produced by Nigel Godrich, Win Butler, and Régine Chassagne. As promised, the group has shared the video for their new song “The Lightning I, II.” It’s directed by Emily Kai Bock; watch it below.
The album was recorded in New Orleans, El Paso, and Mount Desert Island. The 40-minute, seven-song album is split into one side called “I” (an opening side about isolation) and another called “WE” (about reconnection); the first three tracks are on “I,” and the next four are on “WE.” The album’s cover features a photograph by the artist JR with airbrush color tinting by Terry Pastor (who worked on David Bowie’s Hunky Dory and Ziggy Stardust covers). Find a statement from Win Butler about the album below.
The band’s lineup on the album is Régine Chassagne, Win Butler, Richard Reed Parry, Tim Kingsbury, Jeremy Gara, and Will Butler. Dan Boeckner (of Wolf Parade), Paul Beaubrun, and Sarah Neufeld all appear in the new music video and have been playing in the band’s live lineup; Will Butler and Richard Reed Parry were absent for the video’s filming.
The band’s last album was 2017’s Everything Now, which the group promoted with fake news articles and free cereal boxes. Arcade Fire have been promising a new album since 2020, when they said that work was “flowing” on a new LP. That same year, they celebrated the 10th anniversary of their 2010 album The Suburbs.
Last year, Arcade Fire recorded a 45-minute song titled “Memories of the Age of Anxiety” for the popular meditation and sleep app Headspace. They also officially released their score for Spike Jonze’s 2013 film Her, which they created alongside composer Owen Pallett. The group performed a new track called “Generation A” on Stephen Colbert’s Election Night 2020 special, but it was never released on streaming platforms (and doesn’t appear on the new album). The band contributed a song to Tim Burton’s Dumbo reboot in 2019.
Read Pitchfork’s track review of “The Lightning I, II.”
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