Tease: Arcade Fire

Do you ever think about dream records you would make if the universe aligned so you could get exactly what you want?  We must be living in somebody else’s dream, because I wouldn’t have necessarily thought to put Arcade Fire, James Murphy and David Bowie into the same room to record, but I’m really glad they did.  Even if Bowie’s role is a bit of a tease, providing only back-up vocals, much like John Lennon was on “Fame,” or Bowie again on Lou Reed’s “Satellite of Love.”

I have to confess, every time Arcade Fire releases music, I’m so enamored by it’s emotional power and musical prowess that I don’t listen to anything else.  For weeks.  By the end of our love affair, Arcade Fire is the last thing I want to hear.  I just want to tell Win Butler to shut up and get over it, already.  So when new music comes out, I’m nonplussed when I read it, then I fall in love all over again when I hear it.  It’s a torrid love affair, but one I have no intention of

If you’ve never experienced Arcade Fire’s interactive video “The Wilderness Downtown,” I highly recommend it.  It’s like being sucker-punched by your childhood self, but in a good way.  The band created another interactive video for this song, which isn’t as mind-blowing as Wilderness was, but interesting all the same.  It also happens to be aimed at people who can afford more than one device, like a smartphone and a computer.  Ironic that the video was filmed in Haiti, regarded as one of the poorest nations in the Western Hemisphere with a per capita income of $250.  (double irony: that’ll get you a Chromebook, but not a phone or tablet.  Sorry, Haiti, you can’t watch your own video.)