Earlier this week we got a glimpse of Arcade Fire's forthcoming project, the follow-up to 2017's Everything Now, through a few shows in New Orleans, one being a benefit concert for Ukraine. Today, they've officially shared one of those new tracks, the instrument-smashing arena-rock jam "The Lightning I,II" and an Emily Kai Bock–directed video for the single that "expresses the feeling of the last two years: trying to make grand plans only to have the storms of life force you to improvise."
Win Butler explained that the album was recorded during peak COVID in El Paso, TX, "in the shadow of the Mexican border wall, which lay unfinished at the edge of the property." Butler further detailed watching Trump lose the 2020 election and staying in a city where "they were using prison inmates to move bodies to the overfull morgues, because the healthcare system was completely overwhelmed."
He further detailed the track, explaining: "The emotion in the vocal was inspired by the Haitian immigrants that were amassing on the U.S. border, after boarding ships from Haiti and walking from as far as Brazil for a chance at freedom, only to be met with whips and dogs and officers on horseback... We wanted to play the song so fast and hard that you can’t breathe when it’s over…with the realization that you can’t win them all, even when you give it all."
The new single announces their forthcoming album WE, which is seven tracks divided into two sides, one about “the fear and loneliness of isolation” and the other about “the joy and power of reconnection." It was recorded across New Orleans, Mount Desert Island, and El Paso. You can pre-order it here, and watch "The Lightning I, II" video below.
