Released: 2022

Genres: Art Rock, Chamber Pop, Alternative Dance

The Musiquarium’s WE Review Score: 9 out of 10

After the slightly disappointing (but not entirely bad) Everything Now, Arcade Fire returns with an improved album, with help from producer Nigel Godrich, known for producing Radiohead, The Last Shadow Puppets and Beck.

Age of Anxiety I sets up the album with some melodramatic piano, whereas Age of Anxiety II (Rabbit Hole) is a Reflektor-style dance song. The Lightning I, II (one track, assuming you have the CD) harkens back to Arcade Fire’s indie days and is a glorious triumph of a song. The epic End of the Empire I-IV is the closest the band has come to prog rock.

Unconditional I (Lookout Kid), recalls some of the silliness of Everything Now songs like Peter Pan and Chemistry, but is not bad enough to bring the rest of the album down. Unconditional II (Race and Religion) features the legendary Peter Gabriel of Genesis. The title track is a sparse acoustic track that sounds somewhat similar to Led-Zeppelin’s 1970 track, Tangerine.

My only gripe with WE is some of the lyricism, with some perplexingly bad lyrics, like “Hardy har har, Chinese throwing star”, “Born into the abyss, new phone, who’s this?” and “We unsubscribe, fuck season five”, all of which sound like the type of satirical, on-the-nose lyricism that held back Everything Now. Perhaps these lyrics weren’t meant to be taken at face value, but they are still a far cry from the masterful, emotional lyricism of an album like Funeral or The Suburbs.

While it may not reach the lyrical heights of their first four albums, WE is a return to form after the somewhat disappointing Everything Now and feels like a continuation of what Arcade Fire was doing on 2013’s Reflektor. It might be held back only by some weak lyrics at times, but musically, WE is a huge step in the right direction for Arcade Fire.

For credit breakdowns and historic release details, view Arcade Fire on Discogs.

Back to the 2022 Album Guide or the Arcade Fire Reviews page.

Written by Brett Nippard