The band’s trademark fashion consists in wearing rather formal attire during live events and a use of orchestral instruments. When asked about the rumour that the band's name refers to a fire in an arcade, Win Butler replied: "It's not a rumour, it's based on a story that someone told me. It's not an actual event, but one that I took to be real. I would say that it's probably something that the kid made up, but at the time I believed him." Win Butler and his brother Will grew up in Texas.
Band formation
Arcade Fire formed around the husband and wife duo of Win Butler and Régine Chassagne. Joining together as recently as mid-2003, the current line-up solidified in late 2003/early 2004, when their first full-length album Funeral was recorded. Before this an eponymous EP (often referred to by fans as the Us Kids Know EP) had been sold at early shows. The EP was subsequently remastered and given a full release once the band started becoming more prominent. Arcade Fire are known for their enthralling live performances, as well as its use of a large number of musical instruments. In addition to mainstays guitar, drums, and bass guitar, members play piano, violin, viola, cello, double bass, xylophone, keyboard, French horn, accordion, and harp. With several able musicians, the band take most of their instrumental diversity on tour and members switch instrumental duties throughout their shows. The number of instruments, along with a wide set of musical influences has provided a substantial number of resources on which to draw from during the recording process. The promise showed by the band in its live shows allowed it to land a record contract with Chapel Hill-based independent record label Merge Records.
Funeral
Without a major label backing, the success of the band and the album Funeral has been acclaimed as an Internet phenomenon. After a 9.7 rating from Pitchfork, Merge Records sold out their inventory of Funeral and it became the label's first album in the Billboard 200 chart. An early tip from David Bowie was also influential. The band booked small clubs for their 2004 tour but growing interest forced many venue changes, far beyond the band's expectations, and continued internationally into mid-2005. The MTV2 2005 Review hosted by Zane Lowe named Funeral Album of the Year, and NME named Funeral Number 2 in their list of 2005's best albums and "Rebellion (Lies)" the best track. By November 2005, Funeral had gone gold in both Canada and the UK and sold in excess of half a million copies worldwide, a phenomenal number for an independent release with minimal television or radio exposure. It has also surpassed Neutral Milk Hotel's In The Aeroplane Over The Sea as the biggest selling Merge Records album to date.
Arcade Fire were featured on the April 4, 2005 cover of Time Magazine's Canadian edition, and hailed as a band who "helped put Canadian music on the world map". On April 2, 2006, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, they received the Juno Award for Songwriters Of The Year for three songs from Funeral: "Wake Up", "Rebellion (Lies)" and "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)". Arcade Fire then planned to begin recording a follow up to Funeral in the winter of 2005-2006, having bought an old church forty minutes from central Montreal which they converted into a studio.
Neon Bible
In mid-December 2006 www.neonbible.com went live containing nothing more than a phone number, 1-866-NEONBIBLE where people can listen to a new track called Intervention. Built in the style of customer support lines, the number has other features including a contest and a chance to talk to a live person at a specific time each week.
Then in January 2007, they finally announced that the new album Neon Bible would be released March 5th in UK, March 6th in US. The announcement was made with a video in the album's website, with guitarist Richard Reed Parry using a gramophone and a paper mask of Parry's own face, and sitting on Win Butler´s chair. After the announcement of the album´s release, the website was updated with a streaming version of "Black Mirror", new art and a few phone messages sounding like the band´s members.
The Suburbs
The band released their third album "The Suburbs" on August 2, 2010 in the UK and August 3, 2010 in the United States. It debuted at #1 in both countries. On February 13, 2011, the album won Album of the Year at the 53rd Grammy Awards.
Arcade Fire recorded a song for The Hunger Games soundtrack (The Hunger Games: Songs from District 12 and Beyond), called "Abraham's Daughter". The song is featured in the movie's end credits. The soundtrack was released on March 20, 2012, debuting at number one on the Billboard 200. It sold more than 175,000 copies in its first week according to Nielsen SoundScan. It's the first theatrical film soundtrack to top the chart since Michael Jackson's "This Is It" debuted at No. 1 on the list. It is also only the 16th soundtrack to debut at No. 1 in the history of the Billboard 200 chart (those soundtracks include film, television, and straight-to-video efforts).
Reflektor
Arcade Fire and Mercury Records confirmed that they would release a fourth album in late 2013. In December 2012, the band's manager Scott Rodger confirmed that Arcade Fire was in the studio working with James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem. The official Arcade Fire pre-order website sets the release date on October 28, 2013. The band announced on January 18, 2013 that they were selling the church they had been using as a studio due to a collapsed roof. Throughout 2013, the band worked on the album in several different recording studios - including Murphy's DFA Records studio in New York. On June 22, 2013, Rolling Stone reported that new material from the album would be released on September 9, 2013.
Everything Now
Arcade Fire's first announced its fifth record, "Everything Now," on May 31, 2017 when it released the record's title track and lead single. The album's release came July 27, 2017. In the weeks leading up to the album's release, the band released three additional lead singles, "Creature Comfort," "Signs of Life," and "Electric Blue." Upon the week of its release, "Everything Now" reached #1 on the Billboard 200 chart, becoming the band's third-straight and third overall #1 record.
WE
On October 21, 2020, Butler was interviewed for the Broken Record podcast, where he commented about Arcade Fire's sixth album. The band had been writing for a year before the COVID-19 lockdown. In March 2022, fans received postcards marked with the band's logo; the postcards included the note "We missed you", musical notations, as well as an image of an eye with the word "Unsubscribe" written below. Those same images began to appear in signage around London as well as on the band's social media pages, indicating the earliest signs of a new album. On March 14, the band announced a new song titled "The Lightning I, II" would be released on March 17.
On March 17, 2022, Arcade Fire announced that the album would be titled WE and be released on May 6, 2022. Later that week, Will Butler announced he had amicably left the band in 2021 shortly after the completion of WE.
Following the release of WE on May 6, 2022, Arcade Fire announced the group’s first world tour since 2018, starting in August 2022. They again appeared on Saturday Night Live on May 7, 2022, playing "Unconditional I (Lookout Kid)", "The Lightning I, II", and "End of The Empire II" over the closing credits.
Wake Up
Arcade Fire Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
(Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh)
Somethin' filled up
My heart with nothin'
Someone told me not to cry
Now that I'm older
My heart's colder
And I can see that it's a lie
(Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh)
(Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh)
Children, wake up
Hold your mistake up
Before they turn the summer into dust
If the children don't grow up
Our bodies get bigger but our hearts get torn up
We're just a million little god's causin' rain storms
Turnin' every good thing to rust
I guess we'll just have to adjust
(Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh)
(Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh)
With my lightnin' bolts a-glowin
I can see where I am goin' to be
When the reaper he reaches and touches my hand
(Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh)
(Oh-oh-oh-oh)
(Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh)
(Oh-oh-oh-oh)
With my lightnin' bolts a-glowin'
I can see where I am goin'
With my lightnin' bolts a-glowin'
I can see where I am go, goin'
You better look out below
The song "Wake Up" by Arcade Fire is an anthem that captures the disillusionment of young adults as they come to grips with the reality that their childhood was full of lies. The first verses describe the singer's early life as being filled up with nothing and not understanding why. Someone told them not to cry, but now that they are older, they understand that it was a lie.
The chorus then switches to addressing the children of the world. The hook "Children, wake up, Hold your mistake up, Before they turn the summer into dust" implores children to take responsibility for their actions and not let society destroy their youthful spirit. The second part of the chorus describes how, as adults, we grow physically but our hearts get broken. We are all little gods causing rainstorms and turning every good thing to rust. And since we are the cause of the problem, we must adjust to deal with it.
The last lines of the song paint a picture of the singer seeing where they are going in life with their "lightning bolts a-glowin'" but warning others to "look out below." It suggests that as we ascend into the future, others should be wary of the potential collateral damage left behind.
Overall, "Wake Up" is a powerful call to action that speaks to young adults and the disillusionment they face when they realize they have been fed lies their whole life. The song urges them to wake up and take control of their destinies before society grinds them down.
Line by Line Meaning
Somethin' filled up
My heart with nothin'
Someone told me not to cry
A feeling of emptiness crept up on me, and even though it hurt me, someone prohibited me from showing my emotions
Now that I'm older
My heart's colder
And I can see that it's a lie
As I grew up, I became more disillusioned and cynical, realizing that what I had been told earlier was not true
Children, wake up
Hold your mistake up
Before they turn the summer into dust
Kids, snap out of it, own up to your errors before they ruin all the good things about life
If the children don't grow up
Our bodies get bigger but our hearts get torn up
We're just a million little god's causin' rain storms
Turnin' every good thing to rust
I guess we'll just have to adjust
If youngsters remain immature, they may become physically older but emotionally damaged, making the world a terrible place to live. We, as humans, can be destructive in our tiny ways, and it is up to us to deal with the aftermath
With my lightnin' bolts a-glowin
I can see where I am goin' to be
When the reaper he reaches and touches my hand
Even in the face of death, I can see where my life is heading because of the way I have lived it
You better look out below
Be cautious and aware of the trouble that lies beneath
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: William Butler, Win Butler, Regine Chassagne, Tim Kingsbury, Richard R Parry
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind