When listening to their seventh album – their first since 2022’s We – it’s hard to not ignore the Pink Elephant in the room; to borrow from the title of Arcade Fire’s latest release. With the knowledge that this is the first release from the Canadian group since frontman Win Butler was accused by five women of sexual misconduct gives an awkward tension surrounding their music. This tension has become exacerbated by some of the album’s cringy lyrics – that although could have been written in an innocent manner might have unintentionally creepy interpretation tagged to it – as well as the record’s marketing strategy.
Pink Elephant features a song called ‘Circle of Trust’. Which in turn led to an app made for Arcade Fire fans called Circle of Trust. On said app, you can get exclusive access to tickets and hear unheard songs. Due to Win Butler’s untrustworthy behaviour, the name feels both ironic and cult-like. It feels like a sudden desperate attempt to keep fans on side. The lack of interviews or quirky promos leading to the album (remember when they created fictional company Everything Now Corp to showcase the album Everything Now) also creates a secrecy that’s a bit uncomfortable.
Arcade Fire’s usage of the expression ‘Ride or Die‘ feels disingenuous when considering Win Butler’s adulterous disloyalty but isn’t helped by the song’s belittling gender stereotypes: “I could work an office job. You could be a waitress / I could be a movie star. You could be an actress”. ‘Stuck In My Head ‘ – which is one of the two worst tracks on the album along with the dull ‘I Love Her Shadow’ – hears Butler using aggressive and repeating swearing to force an emotion. The duplicating of the words “circle of trust” and “salvation” across two tracks feels like a musician expecting redemption for his publicised sins.
Aside from the awkwardness, is Arcade Fire’s Pink Elephant a good listening experience? The concept of renewal promised by the rousing single ‘Year of The Snake’ could have been a great idea and makes sense when you consider that this is the first Arcade Fire album without Win Butler’s brother Will. Expressing the idea of renewal in different ways would have been an interesting premise. The aforementioned ‘Year Of The Snake’ uses Chinese zodiacs to date the year of this LP, as well as flashbacking to the year of the band’s formation by singing: “In the year of the rabbit, I picked up the habit of waiting on you”. The song has a trippy guitar motif and steady psychedelia helped by the blissful and earworm inducing duet with Régine Alexandra Chassagne of the lyrics: “season of change.” It’s easy to listen to but has trademark Arcade Fire ambition in the enveloping of its composition. However, the line “So do what is true. Don’t do what you should” adds further weight to the questionable actions subtext on the record.
Although the album sadly doesn’t follow the renewal topic throughout the album and is conceptually all over the place, there is a structure to Pink Elephant. Like previous Arcade Fire albums songs fade into each other to give album impressive continuity and there are three science fiction soundtrack interludes. With elements of that vibe sprinkling into the full length tracks to make them seem less random. The first two interludes are really enjoyable. Opening track ‘Open Your Heart or Die Trying’ is an ambient soundscape punctured by air raid sirens and electronic showering. Its dystopian nature makes it seem like Arcade Fire are composing the film music to an adaption of the 1984 William Gibson novel Neuromancer – about a computer hacker that’s recruited for a robbery – which they refer to in on the title track ‘Pink Elephant‘: “Your fake friends, they go out dancing. But you’re too busy neuromancing. Every circuit in your heart sings.” The succeeding sci-fi interlude ‘Beyond Salvation‘ sounds like a cyborg being rebooted in front of a sunrise before it engages in a journey of self-discovery. Something from the movie AI: Artificial Intelligence perhaps. Although ‘She Cries Diamond Rain‘ has a new age aura to it that wonderfully recalls Enigma, by the time this interlude comes around you might have grown tired of these kind of instrumentals – unless one could think of these as mediative sessions that give off the feeling of renewal. However, it’s unclear if that is their purpose.
Pink Elephant has some typically good Arcade Fire crescendo moments but it’s a real mix bag of quality. Musically from song to song or even within one song itself – ‘Alien Nation’ being the perfect example of squeaky vocal annoyance and praiseworthy Kasabian rock exhilaration. On top of that it contains surprisingly underwhelming lyrics that when already knowing about the reported behaviour of the lead singer make it even easier to dislike.
