A step back in experimentation to reawaken the attention of the past, to keep alive the call to community that has always characterized their training, their catalytic music and, now, also the title of their latest album.
This is WE, the new Arcade Fire, which was published this Friday.
All the critics coincide in celebrating the return of this band of Canadian and Haitian origins to the path of their most celebrated works, such as The Suburbs (2010), awarded the Grammy for best album, especially after the previous Everything Now (2017), with which the public and the press felt that he had gone too far in his spirit of conquering unexplored territories.
We recommend: Will Butler announces his departure from Arcade Fire: “time for new things” Taken with caution, because at the moment it does not arouse the same cheers as, for example, his debut with Funeral (2004), a general rejoicing is perceived before seven cuts which, without losing their ambition altogether, get back in tune with the regular listener(s), because everyone has a place here.
It would not make sense otherwise on an album called WE (we, in Spanish), which is presented as “cathartic” and which, according to its authors, rows in favor of unity and against “the forces that threaten to distance us from the people we love, as well as the urgent need to overcome them.
The leaders of this populous group, the married couple Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, dedicated “the most non-stop time” they have ever dedicated to one of their albums and, to co-produce it, they called in Nigel Godrich, well known for his I worked with Radiohead from Ok Computer (1997) to A Moon Shaped Pool (2016).
This is how you can listen to WE In purely musical terms, it should be noted that almost any of its songs could synthesize the multiple facets that have made Arcade Fire recognizable thanks to its generous developments and changes in dynamics, especially End of Empire I-IV and its more than nine minutes long, with a piano start reminiscent of the most celebrated ballads of The Beatles.
From the first cut of the album you can see his hand with pop-rock with synthesizers that are subtle enough not to be easy, but also with his characteristic nods to contemporary folk and his ability to take it all to the dance floor without being frivolous. There is practically nothing new, but it works.
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