In the swing of opinions surrounding the current state of the Arcade Fire, four sides emerge: those who love them despite the disorientation due to the 2022 scandal on the alleged sexual harassment of Win Butler; Who hates them for the same reason; Who, with aristocratic attitude, always has a little snubbed (beyond the events that emerged three years ago), nourishing a culture of suspicion towards these capable “fricchettoni”, with only two albums (Funeral And Neon Bible) to cross the rock threshold of Rock thanks to Mentori like David Bowie and David Byrne. And then there are those who were bewitched at the dawn, when their musical universe seemed to come from an inexplicable elsewhere, and still try to understand the path between ups and downsReflektor), medium (We) and low (Everything now) – Despite the confusion under Montréal's sky.
Yes, why Pink Elephantout on 9 May and preceded by the single of the same name and by Year of the Snakeproduced by the 80s rock sound guru Daniel Lenois, is also the first without the important creative contribution of Will Butler, a younger brother of Win and the group's “Funambolo”. Owen Pallett, historical collaborator and arranger of the band, also disappears from the credits. Only in three tracks of the new album do the historical members play together: Richard Reed Parry (absent from the paternity leave tour), Tim Kingsbury and Jeremy race. In addition to some occasional performers (such as the drummer Jazz Brian Blade) there are also contributions from the other musicians who have been affiliated for some time: Veterana Sarah Neufeld and Dan Boeckner. The multi -instrumentalist Paul Beaubrun is instead present on the tour, unofficially left by Willie Nelson's Luck Reunion 2025, held on 13 March.
But it is enough to observe the Band's promotional program of the band of the band to understand that this is, in fact, the first disc of Régine Chassagna and Win Butler “With” the Arcade Fire. It is above all the first album after the global and completely unexpected clamor aroused by the case of the alleged sexual abuse against Win Butler: although the singer has always denied the accusations made by five people, affirming these were consensual relationships and in any case apologizing for the suffering caused, the story has profoundly shaken the credibility of a band that has always been committed to promoting social and liberal political values and strong bond of trust with followers.
The real artistic novelty of Pink Elephant It is obviously the presence of Daniel Lenois, the famous Canadian producer who, between the 80s and 90s, defined the rock aesthetic by collaborating with the U2 of The Joshua Tree And Achtung BabyPeter Gabriel (I know) and Bob Dylan (Oh mercy). Open Your Heart or Die Trying, Beyond Salvation And She Cries Diamond Rain There are three instrumental interludes that act as bridges between the real songs, built on the model of the sound stratifications that Lanois elaborated with Brian Eno for ambient works such as Apollo: Atmospheres and soundtracks.
The arpeggio of the title track, born from the attempt never successful of the frontman to emulate Elizabeth Cotton's fingerpicking in Freight Trainit emerges from cosmic dust like a space spacecraft, and the text reads: “Your Fake Friends they go out dancing / but're too busy neuromancing”. The verse plays with the title of the novel Neuromante by William Gibson, one of Butler's favorites. “We are already half men and half machines,” said the frontman, citing some theses of the Cyberpunk literature classic.
In Year of the Snakeadvertised by a psychedelic video signed by David Wilson and the video artist Mark Sethergast, Lenois begins to mix the cards, spreading loops and sound effects, while Régine set out with the microphone, before selling it to her husband, in a crescendo reminiscent of the epic of the discs of the zero years. “Don't do what you should / is a season of changes / and if you feel strange / is probably good” could be the aphorism that explains in two lines the sense of Pink Elephant. Special guest Micah Nelson, son of Willie.
Circle of Trust Slow motion mixture the beat of Sweet Dreams and the incede of It's's Raining Men (version of Geri Halliwell), weighing as a classic 80s dancefloor with some yearning around the 90s. It leads to the decade of the grunge Alien Nationwhich unleashes the pitches and the stage tricks of the Big Beat evoking Party at the Chemical Brothers, Prodigy and Fatboy Slim. In the cameos of the song there is Eddie Butler, the son of Win and Régine born in 2013, ten years after their marriage.
I Love Her Shadow It is a moment of claustrophobic nostalgia, suspended between the epic of The Suburbs and dotted in the final by Rétro video game style sound inserts; Laughs or die echoes Stand by me and is inspired by Tonada de Luna Llena by Simón Díaz (1974), the song that Butler listened to more during 2024; Stuck in My Headwith a growing growing in a joy division style, tries to recall the expressive figure of Neon Bible.
The only song that really approaches the primordial spirit of the Arcade Fire is not included in the disc. It is the remake of Cars and Telephonethe first demo presented by Win a Régine at the beginning of the new millennium, when the embryo of the Arcade Fire was taking shape. You can listen to it on the Trust app, a mini-social one designed ad hoc for the smartphones of the most faithful.
The inevitable watermark of Pink Elephant It is the moral tumult, but reducing the album to the news would be wrong. The title track explores the paradox that the more you try not to think about something and the more that thought requires the mind. It could make you think, in fact, of everything that happened and the fact that it is impossible to separate ethics and aesthetics, art and the artist, but in reality it is far from. “The pink elephant is only a symbol of my depression,” Butler said in one of the contents produced by the disc app. Neither Year of the Snake He alludes to the accusations, but draws inspiration from the observation of a snake during a pink moon night or from the Chinese calendar, a symbol of transformation.
Certainly change is the constant of every artistic work. And it is perhaps the only way to survive for all of us. Seven albums, seven songs, seven bands is a kind of numerological synthesis entrusted to the microphones of the phantom Radio Santa Pirate, always on the app, as a wife and husband. The truth is that the seventh album of the Montréal ensemble (even if Win Butler and Régine Chassagna have been living in New Orleans for some time now) is a beautiful and unfinished disc that leaves a little bitterness in the mouth.
The songs, rich in potential, dissolve, do not explode, they are not surprising as they could have. On the football commentary we would say: missing, dribbling is missing. And maybe the remuntada. There is a sort of hypnotic research, too geometric, too “mental”. Perhaps it is an escape from reality, an attempt to elaborate something that has escaped hands. The Arcade Fire were the Arcade Fire because the music they did was arcane and mysterious and left nothing outstanding. Now the question point have become them.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
