So Will Butler, Win’s little brother, has announced a solo album? Why, wasn’t satisfied with his background role in the almighty Arcade Fire, the greatest rock band of the moment? I guess this was inevitable, after a certain amount of time being the shadow of a big brother like Win, you have to show you can come up with something original of your own.
The upcoming album is called ‘Policy’, not to be mixed up with another old band of the 80s, it will be out on March 10th via Merge, and the accompanying press released is either hilarious or totally pretentious:
‘Policy is American music—in the tradition of the Violent Femmes, the Breeders, the Modern Lovers, Bob Dylan, Smokey Robinson, the Magnetic Fields, Ghostface Killah. And John Lennon (which counts).’
According to Pitchfork, it was also recorded ‘in Jimi Hendrix’s old living room at Electric Lady Studios in New York’, and according to Spin magazine, it will certainly include songs like ‘Take My Side’, ‘Finish What I Started’ that Will played a few weeks ago in Brooklyn… since I wasn’t there, I can’t really tell you much about the songs, except what you can perceive through the snippets played during the bizarro video below. And if the people in animal costumes with black and white dots are any indication, it sounds playful, like the general tone of the clip.
A few videos of that solo Brooklyn show have appeared on line, and if it is often difficult to have a good idea of a new song from a live recording, this sounds very good. Plus ‘Take My Side’ was just posted on Soundcloud this morning, and it’s totally rocking. The song has a sort of retro rockabilly vibe, starting with a catchy foot-tapping rhythm, going even a bit surfy-garage-rock with shouted lyrics and back-up ooo-ooos,…. almost early Beatles at times when I am at it! It’s charmingly upbeat and very bouncy.
So what if Will Butler becomes bigger than Win Butler? Will this blow up Arcade Fire? Will he do a solo tour to promote this new album, or is this just a secondary side project he will never pursue? Will and his band were truly rocking some Stones-Beatles-Everly Brothers old tunes when I saw them at this Arcade Fire after party last August, I should have understood that something was itching Will…
Here is ‘Policy’ tracklist:
01 “Take My Side”
02 “Anna”
03 “Finish What I Started”
04 “Son Of God”
05 “Something’s Coming”
06 “What I Want
07 “Sing To Me”
08 “Witness”
