Member Since: 3/3/2011
Posts: 23,567
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Arcade Fire have always been great at building on their sound in an organic way, in a way that feels more like growing it than anything else. On “Reflektor” there’s the same interactive video elements that the band have dabbled in before and many of the sonic elements are familiar too, but there’s a distinct sense that they’re still moving forward in experimentation. The existential, reality-probing nature of their music is what has consistently set them apart from their peers and this new single is no different on that front either. If the rest of Reflektor is anything like this another Grammy nod might be in order.
Grade: A
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It’s a seven-and-a-half minute surge into a dark, mysterious future only the Arcade Fire know for now. We won’t discover exactly what that is for another month and a half, but we’ll be too busy dancing alongside Bowie to care. If only all waiting rooms were this funky, fresh, and hip.
Grade: A
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In my mind, Arcade Fire are true originals. This song is no exception to my perception of them being that way. The coolest thing about this new track is that it seems capable of standing completely on its own, free from trend or influence of any kind, and more singularly related to their progression as a band than anything else. It sounds like the next logical step from where their last album left off, its a little darker in sound, and lyrically it appears at first listen, more pondering and thoughtful than reflective as they were on The Suburbs.
Grade: A
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“Reflektor” asks you to have fun, while it asks you about death. It feels spiritual while it makes you reconsider your worldview. Watching them salsa and merengue on an 80% empty dance floor, not long after discussing the world’s hardest problems made me know they were making music I’d want to hear, and “Reflektor” proved that feeling right.
Grade: A
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They have always reviewed the reclusiveness of modern presence but are now, in some way, confident enough to take on the sort of lambent, pellucid sound that mimics the desolation of cyber-culture, and make something real and flooring out of it.
Grade: A
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As for the music, it’s new ground for Arcade Fire. Not only does David Bowie sing in the background, I wonder if it’s him on the piano too, since it sounds a lot like the piano from Bowie’s Eno produced Berlin Trilogy era. But there’s aspects that sound like other Eno projects too, like Talking Heads or early Roxy Music. Blessedly, it even has hints of Soul Mining era The The. So this song is indeed “reflekting” music’s past (and Arcade Fire’s influences) while speaking to its listeners’ present. Lyrically, “Reflektor” addresses an real and immediate issue that I spend a lot of time thinking about, and it does so while being a bitchin’ and highly danceable tune. Thus, Arcade Fire remains right the hell on top with a song I could write plenty more about, but instead I’ll recommend you explore yourself.
Grade: A
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The entire track from front to back takes you on a timeless journey in sonics and lyrical content. There are swells and swirls of sound that weave in and out, rise and fall and aren’t only heard but also felt. Some how they always seem to be able to cause the listener to have that inexpressible feeling of running through an open field. Once again these musical snippers have proven they don’t miss their target. Their target, the human heart. Like highly trained professional assassins.
Grade: A
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The single is a triumph of haunted disco, the group’s signature dread smoothed across seven minutes of slow-burn rhythm instead of inflated to dangerously melodramatic arena-rock heights. After a move that smart, David Bowie’s a bonus.
Grade: A
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hey’re up all night to get lucky, or maybe to ponder the nature of reality in our social media age, but no matter what this thing’s about, it’s the shiniest horror-pop groover since Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller.’ Now we know the reason for the long hiatus: They’ve been practicing their choreography.
Grade: A-
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While “Reflektor” comes as no great surprise, picking up the synthetic pulse of “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains),” both the standout and outlier of The Suburbs, it still works in nearly every way, riding that James Murphy groove for seven-and-a-half minutes as Win Butler searches for salvation in a reflective age and David Bowie — a man who knows something about being a reflection of a reflection — chimes in, too. Sprawling, indeed.
Grade: A-
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at people calling that amateur Zendaya Queen Z, Legend Z, Zelegend
