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.
The Well and the Lighthouse
Arcade Fire Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
All for a crime I did commit
You want the truth?
You know I'd do it all again
Left for dead
Heaven is only in my head
I heard a voice
"See that silver shine?"
She said to come claim what was mine
So down I fell
Down into the water black
My prison cell
Only the moon was shining back
If I seem lost, well, I weighted the cost
And chose my crime
Now it's mine all mine
I heard the voice
Calling from just outside the well
She said, "you fool, now that you know your end is near
You always fall for what you desire or what you fear"
Resurrected
Living in a lighthouse
If you leave the ships are gonna wreck
Resurrected
Living in a lighthouse
The lions and the lambs ain't sleeping yet
Resurrected
Living in a lighthouse
Can you see the far side, the ships are going to wreck
Resurrected
Living in a lighthouse
The lions and the lambs ain't sleeping yet
The lions and the lambs ain't sleeping yet
The lions and the lambs ain't sleeping yet
The lyrics to Arcade Fire's song Lighthouse tell the story of a man who is imprisoned for a crime he admits to committing. While he is left for dead, he hears a voice calling him from a well. The voice tells him to see the "silver shine" and to come claim what is his. The man falls into the dark water of the well and finds himself in a prison cell with only the moon as his source of light.
The man seems resigned to his fate and acknowledges that he weighed the cost of his crime and chose it anyway. He hears the voice again, this time warning him that his end is near, and that he always falls for what he desires or fears. However, the man is "resurrected" and now lives in a lighthouse. He has been given a second chance to start over, but he knows that if he leaves, the ships will wreck. The final lines of the song imply that there is still danger, as the lions and lambs have yet to sleep, suggesting that the man's new life will not be without its challenges and struggles.
Overall, "Lighthouse" seems to be about redemption and the possibility of starting again after making a mistake. The man in the song acknowledges his wrongdoings, accepts his punishment, and is then given a chance to redeem himself. It's a powerful message and one that can be applied to many different situations in life.
Line by Line Meaning
I'm serving time
I am being punished for my actions
All for a crime I did commit
I am being punished for a crime I actually did commit
You want the truth?
Do you really want to know what happened?
You know I'd do it all again
I would repeat my criminal action in a heartbeat
Left for dead
I was abandoned to suffer alone
Heaven is only in my head
I can only imagine a peaceful afterlife
I heard a voice
I heard a mysterious voice
Calling from down inside the well
The voice appeared to be coming from deep underground
"See that silver shine?"
The voice directed my attention to something glimmering
She said to come claim what was mine
The voice urged me to take what I deserved
So down I fell
I took a risk and fell into the well
Down into the water black
I fell into a dark abyss filled with water
My prison cell
The well became my new prison
Only the moon was shining back
The only light present was the faint shine of the moon
If I seem lost, well, I weighted the cost
If I seem aimless, it is because I have carefully considered the consequences of my choices
And chose my crime
Despite the risks, I intentionally committed my crime
Now it's mine all mine
I have claimed the results of my actions as my own
I heard the voice
The same mysterious voice spoke to me again
Calling from just outside the well
The voice sounded like it was right outside the well now
She said, "you fool, now that you know your end is near
The voice chastised me for my foolish choices
You always fall for what you desire or what you fear"
The voice accused me of being driven by my desires and fears
Resurrected
I was given a second chance
Living in a lighthouse
I found a new home in the safety of a lighthouse
If you leave the ships are gonna wreck
If I am not there to warn people, disaster will occur
The lions and the lambs ain't sleeping yet
The world is still filled with conflict and danger
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Jeremy Gara, Regine Chassagne, Richard R Parry, Tim Kingsbury, William Butler, Win Butler
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@Ikkikun29
She said," you fool, now that you know your end is near." 😌
@thoughtart
Love it ahaha "resurrected Living in a lighthouse" got me through a lot of stuff
@mirzatayibnapis1722
Love this song, especially the 2nd part
@ericfoster8411
The imagery they creat with the lyrics on this album is insane and spooky
@petehodgson8133
Just everything I love about their second album. Musiclally upbeat with great changes and lyrics which are deep but don't ruin the vibe. A hard line to tread. Only my opinion. But just love it when it slows again near the end.
@TheSchuyler75
Love y’all 🙏💜🤗
@joachimpeiper8076
Among their 5 best songs ever
@amjh4lah809
Crackin' song. ♥
@alejandro.rodriguez.abella332
Me encanta 💛
@dimmyparade2824
Thank you so much!