- 2022-03-18
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MUSIC
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Donate to support families affected by the crisis in Ukraine ➔ Arcade Fire Announces New Album “WE”, Premieres New Song “The Lightning I, II” on BBC Radio 1
Canadian alt-rock band Arcade Fire announced their sixth studio album “WE” would be released on May 6, 2022.
It is their first album in five years since the 2017 album “Everything Now”.
The album consists of two parts, including 7-track, produced by Nigel Godrich, Win Butler, and Régine Chassagne. One side called “I” (an opening side about isolation) featuring 3 tracks and another called “WE” (about reconnection) featuring 4 tracks.
Also the album features British singer-songwriter Peter Gabriel.
The band recorded the album in New Orleans, El Paso, and Mount Desert Island during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was the longest we've ever spent writing, uninterrupted, probably ever," the band frontman Win Butler said.
From the album, the band premiered a new song “The Lightning I, II” along with a music video on BBC Radio 1's Future Artists with Jack Saunders.- Win Butle shared on social media, “WE are so excited to present our new song 'The Lightning I, II'. It was recorded with Nigel Godrich in El Paso, TX in the shadow of the Mexican border wall, which lay unfinished at the edge of the property. It was peak Covid. El Paso was the epicenter in the U.S. at that time, they were using prison inmates to move bodies to the overfull morgues, because the healthcare system was completely overwhelmed. I'll never forget finishing the take and walking straight to our outdoor communal space where we had screwed a television into a tree so we could watch election results outside, to see the news that Trump had lost the election. The emotion in the vocal was inspired by the immigrants that were amassing on the US border, after boarding ships from Haiti and walking from as far as Brazil for a chance at freedom, only to be met with whips and dogs and officers on horseback. I was lyrically inspired by the optimism I see in my child living paradise 'beneath a poison sky'. But mostly WE wanted to play the song so fast and hard that you can't breath when it's over...with the realization that you can't win them all, even when give it all. A 4th place anthem. And a reminder that 'A day, a week, a month, a year, every second brings me here'.”
The video was directed by Emily Kai Bock. “The video directed by our friend (and fellow Montreal DIY scene alum) Emily Kai Bock express the feeling of the last two years: trying to make grand plans only to have the storms of life force you to improvise. Sometimes bright flashes of Lightning to guide our way, light up the sky, and burn it all down so we can start again...” - source : BBC Radio 1
