After months of teasing new material, Arcade Fire have shared a new song and video for ‘Cars and Telephones’.
- READ MORE: Arcade Fire’s ‘Funeral’ at 15: the album that killed indie rock as we knew it
Speculation began back in March, when the Canadian indie rock band made some drastic changes to their social media pages. On Instagram, this included deleting all their posts and uploading a new profile picture, bio, and website link, which didn’t go unnoticed by fans.
Notably, the band removed all of their Instagram posts and changed the artwork on the page in 2022, as part of the lead-up to them announcing their sixth studio album ‘WE’.
More recently, their bio was updated with the cryptic message: “It’s the year of the snake so let your heart break”, and their profile picture changed to the word “TRUST” in all-caps written in a circle.
Speculation culminated in yesterday’s (April 4) teaser, which saw the band share a video showing an unseen person finger-painting “TRUST” on the back of a tambourine – accompanied by a caption that pointed to an announcement “in the Circle of Trust” – their members fan club app – at 5pm Central Time (11pm UK time).
According to members who have since taken to social media, the new track was shared in a podcast. When introducing the song, they explained it was 25 years in the making, having been reworked from a 2001 demo that predated the inception of the band.
The reception so far seems mixed, with some fans of the early demo disappointed at it’s reimagining. “I loved the demo,” wrote one fan on Reddit, “but I wasn’t particularly impressed by this.”
“Am I allowed to say that it’s underwhelming?” asked another. “I’m a massive fan but I think it’s a bit flimsy?”. Others disagreed, saying: “No one is taking the demo version away and if anything it allows you to preserve it as your favorite underknown and underappreciated Arcade Fire deep track.”
The song aside, many have taken issue with the potential album name – thought to be ‘Circle Of Trust’ like their app – in light of allegations of sexual misconduct against frontman Win Butler. In 2022, four people came forward to accuse the singer of inappropriate behaviour, and the accusations also led to Feist leaving the ‘WE’ tour early.
Butler replied to the allegations in a lengthy statement of his own, claiming he was “very sorry to anyone who I have hurt with my behaviour” but maintaining that “these relationships were all consensual”.
“Arcade Fire are calling their fan club “The Circle of Trust” after all of those allegations came out about Win Butler during the last album cycle?” wrote an X/Twitter user. “Sorry, are you guys just taking the piss and trolling people now?”
In other news, towards the start of the year, frontman Butler teamed up with David Byrne and St. Vincent for a rendition of David Bowie‘s ‘Heroes’ during the 50th-anniversary celebrations of Saturday Night Live. The band also announced a one-off show at High Water in South Carolina, taking place next month.
As well as that, last spring saw Butler, Régine Chassagne, Richard Reed Parry, Tim Kingsbury and Jeremy Gara announce a handful of shows to celebrate the 20th-anniversary of their 2004 album ‘Funeral’.
