Arcade Fire - WE
Back in 2007, The Arcade Fire (Win Butler’s definitive article, not your reviewer’s) warned us: ‘I know a time is coming, all words will lose their meaning.’
Lifted from the suitably apocalyptic ‘Black Mirror’ from the Neon Bible album, those words are eerily relevant in the post-truth edge. But where do you go once you’ve predicted the future?
The answer, as has been the case for eight years and three albums, is simply to dance through the dystopian pain. Where 2013’s Reflektor had its moments, the Canadian/French act stumbled on Everything Now five years ago, their marketing plan of presenting themselves as a corporation crossing a line into over-irony, to say nothing of it being an inferior version of its predecessor.
On WE, the shining disco-balls are still present and correct, but they’ve been tempered and toned down to serve the songs rather than dominate them.