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.
You Already Know
Arcade Fire Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
The fantastic
Arcade Fire!
Sometimes it moves so fast
Sometimes it moves so fast
If you stop to ask
It's already passedSo how can you move so slow?
How can you move so slow?
You miss it if you don't
You miss it if you
Don't already know
Already know
Already know
Already know
Already know
When your love is right
When your love is right
You can't sleep at night
You've been sleeping just fine
But when your love is bad
When your love is bad
Don't know why you're so sad
But it's time to go
You already know
Already know
You already know
You already know
You already know
You already knowYou already know
Already know
Sometimes it moves so fast
Sometimes it moves so fast
If you stop to ask
It's already passed
So how can you move so slow?
How can you move it so slow?
You missed it, you know
You missed it
You already know
Already know
You already know
You already know
You already know
You already know
You already know
Please stop wondering why you feel so bad
You already know (Already know)
Please stop wondering why you feel so sad
When you already know (Already know)
Please stop wondering why you feel so bad
When you already know (Already know)
Please stop wondering why you feel so sad
When you already know (Already know)
Already know
It's time to go
She said
"Well how do I know
When I know
When I know?" (You already know)
Well then he said
"Well how do I know
When I know
When I know?" (You already know)
She said
"Well how do I know
When I know
When I know?"
(Arcade Fire ladies and gentlemen)
"You Already Know" is a track from Arcade Fire's second album, Neon Bible. The lyrics of the song speak to the idea of missing out on life by moving too slowly or not being aware of what's happening around you. It's about how when we're in love, the world is moving so fast around us that we can't keep up with it. The song's chorus is an admonishment to the listener not to miss out on what's happening in the moment. It's suggesting that the listener already knows what they need to do in order to be present and aware.
The song's verses mirror each other, and it's interesting to think about what the parallels between the two relationships they describe might be. When your love is right, you can't sleep at night, but when it's wrong, you don't know why you're so sad. The song suggests that in both cases, the answer is to move on. The way it repeats the phrase "already know" and uses it to suggest both the problem and the solution is an interesting rhetorical device.
There are several possible interpretations of the song, but one is that it's about the experience of feeling stuck. The singer is saying that they already know what they need to do to move on, but they can't bring themselves to do it. The chorus serves as a reminder that time is fleeting, and we need to take action before the opportunities we're presented with pass us by.
Line by Line Meaning
Sometimes it moves so fast
Life can be so unpredictable and fast-paced
If you stop to ask
If you hesitate or overthink, you'll miss out on opportunities
It's already passed
Opportunities pass by quickly and unexpectedly
So how can you move so slow?
Why do some people move slowly and delay their decisions?
You miss it if you don't
If you fail to act quickly, you'll miss out on opportunities
You already know
You already have the answer or solution within you
When your love is right
When you're in a good relationship
You can't sleep at night
You're so happy and content that you don't want to waste time sleeping
You've been sleeping just fine
When you're not in a good relationship, you sleep normally
When your love is bad
When you're in a bad relationship
Don't know why you're so sad
You can't explain why you're feeling so unhappy
But it's time to go
It's time to end this bad relationship
Please stop wondering why you feel so bad
Don't overthink why you're unhappy
When you already know (Already know)
You already know the reason, so it's time to act on it
It's time to go
It's time for a fresh start and a new beginning
She said "Well how do I know When I know When I know?" (You already know)
Sometimes you may doubt yourself and need reassurance, but deep down you already know the answer
Well then he said "Well how do I know When I know When I know?" (You already know)
Others may doubt themselves and need reassurance, but they already know the answer
(Arcade Fire ladies and gentlemen)
A humorous ending to the song, signifying the end of the performance
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
@JORDANLEWISFILM
This album lives rent free in my brain forever
@PaulaManuel-k7y
this is their most accessible, rockin, beautiful, and just about gives you a quick run up too what their about in sound and vision and just awesomeness,..i don't know, it just remains that way everytime i listen to it......
@josephreilly6328
Cus, it's all that ya no.
@ArcadeFires
I couldn't sleep last night, and this song was playing in my head over and over for hours... I'm not mad about it!
@monolithe2812
"We have fabulous music from the fantastic ARCADE FIREEEE!!!!!"
@petajames4292
I defy anyone to sit still whilst listening to this x
@biaribrib
amo tanto essa
@yankakarolinna3716
te amo arcade fire
@ricardogallardo4295
What happened to the music video?, I dont see it anymore.
@hdsushi7628
Me: Why doesn't this have lots of views?
Arcade Fire: You already know