Arcade Fire Accepts the Unknown with “Lightning I, II”
By Nora Onanian
Since entering (or rather, shaking up) the scene in 2004 with their debut album Funeral, Arcade Fire has not held back from sonic experimentation. Their most recent full-length album, 2017’s Everything Now, saw the band with their most lush, electronic backings to date— tracks like “Almost Blue” almost possessing a disco-tinged sound.
Five years after that release, Arcade Fire has returned from their long stretch of quiet just as loud as they first burst through the scene, putting out the connecting pair of singles “The Lightning I, II” on Thursday, March 17.
The singles give the same stripped-back, yet beautifully dynamic sound that Funeral does. And it seems it’s more than just a coincidence. Artwork of a hand clutching lightning bolts used in a booklet of the group’s debut LP was recently used in a promotional video for “The Lightning I, II” — among a treasure-hunt-like dropping of other subtle advertising leading up to its release. Additionally, “Wake Up,” the seventh track from Funeral, has another tie-in to the recent release. The song ends rather gently, giving emphasis on the lyrics, “With my lightnin’ bolts-a-glowin,’ I can see where I am goin.’”
All these years later, it seems Arcade Fire has repeatedly ruminated over this concept of maintaining some control, or at least foresee, the direction of their lives. And this time, they declare that they may not exactly know where they’re going, but they show an ability to find peace and acceptance in the very unknown of it all. With the track’s lively sound and a belt-worthy level of vocal and lyrical conviction, they try to teach listeners to do the same.
The first of the two parts of “The Lighting I, II” is softer instrumentally. A stretched note of violin and a glissando of the piano by Régine Chassagne first transports listeners into Arcade Fire’s sonic world, the sounds reminiscent of the music of the 80’s. Win Butler comes in with his distinctive vocals and an acoustic guitar. Through poetic verses, Butler sings of being “beat down and broken” in a deeply faulted world. But singing together for the chorus, Chassagne and Butler instill a promise. They sing, “We can make it if you don’t quit on me, I won’t quit on you, don’t quit on me.” The song is bright yet moody, ending with a thunderous tunnel of drums, leading directly into “The Lightning II.”
Bursting with energy from the start, “The Lightning II,” is nothing short of electric. Quick-paced drumming, an incessant bassline, guitar and piano hardly slow down, only trailing away in a purposely messy clash at the song’s end. “Waiting on the lightning, what will the light bring” Butler repeatedly asks through the song. This is ultimately the line he finishes on; it’s fitting, in a way, as listeners wait for the band’s next chapter to unfold.
“The Lightning I, II” is the lead single of Arcade Fire’s upcoming album We, set to come out on May 6, 2022. Previews of yet-to-be-released tracks like “Age of Anxiety” indicate that there will be more moments speaking to the level of unknown addressed in the first two singles and show, as usual, the band’s active efforts to point out the flaws of society. For now, Arcade Fire promises, if “we keep hoping, in the distance we’ll see a glow.”