Forget about Lady Gaga, Nine Inch Nails, Pearl Jam and Katy Perry, this is probably the most anticipated album of the fall, at least for me! I am talking about Arcade Fire’s ‘Reflektor’, and to tease me/us even more, the band has just release a tiny tiny snippet of a song, actually just 15 seconds of something! When you open the link with Spotify, the ‘Reflektor’ design appears and the track is entitled ‘9 pm 9/9’… we know already something big in the Arcade Fire world is gonna happen at this date.
But 15 seconds is nothing, I couldn’t even listen to it anymore for obscure reasons, then Spotify let me to have a taste of it again! One thing is sure, the Canadian band has nothing against the evil stream machine, at this level, they aren’t in many other famous musicians’ camp, they even use Spotify as part of their long teasing campaign which started with these street art signs posted everywhere in cities around the world, as well as on Instagram. Spotify has confirmed that the 15 seconds do really belong to the band’s upcoming album, and so I see a tight collaboration there… sorry Thom Yorke.
The snippet is atmospheric and mysterious, there are no vocals just synths building a sound like an enormous human voice, but it is difficult to get an idea of the album with so little. At the FYF fest, they were giving away tons of paper fans and stickers with this Reflektor sign, and when I see pictures of buildings covered by this same logo in New York city, and now this snippet which sounds almost like a biblical announcement of the return of the messiah, I can be sure of one thing: Arcade Fire’s members are fully aware of their place in the music business: in one word, they know they matter. As for the new album, James Murphy said ‘It sounds like Arcade Fire in the way that only Arcade Fire sound like Arcade Fire. It’s really fucking epic. Seriously.’ Yeah seriously!