ARCADE FIRE 黑胶唱片和CD

Review: Pink Elephant is Arcade Fire's first album since 2022's We, and it serves as a compact and cathartic return that is defined by its sense of reflection and emotional recalibration. It has been co-produced by Daniel Lanois and leans into intimate textures and moving drums with standout tracks like 'Year of the Snake' and 'Ride or Die', evoking both earnest self-examination and communal uplift. Elsewhere, there is the hypnotic 'Circle of Trust' and haunting title track, which showcase the band's ability to mix grandeur with vulnerability and means that this is a work that again cements Arcade Fire's reputation as one of indie's finest.

Review: Fight through the blizzard of scrupulously meta promotional activity surrounding it and you'll find a record that deconstructs the bombast Aracade Fire have become known for, reveals the vulnerability behind the stadium sheen and offers a treatise on modern day superficiality and consumerism. Moreover, it makes a sterling job of all three - joyfully disco-inflected, poppily uplifting, stylistically adventurous and bolder than every before, this is a band who can reference ABBA and Bowie irony-free in a ditty about information overload and somehow get away with it - a bunch of eternal square pegs with emotional wallop and deft melodic skills at their disposal, constantly in search of musical worlds beyond empty rhetoric and grandstanding gestures.