Part of the writing evaluates ‘Year of the Snake’, the first advance of the new Arcade Fire album, ‘Pink Elephant’:
«With the same roundness that I affirm that the first four albums of Arcade Fire are four masterpieces, I affirm that the quality downturn in the following two is considerable. ‘EveryThing Now’ (2017) contains some of his best songs, but he is wearing for also containing some of the worst, and ‘We’ (2022) was more “regular” in that sense, but he could not achieve the excellence of yesteryear … even, in what until that moment the band was infallible: throw tremendous Lead singles.
In that sense, even if I look at the seventh album with caution in terms of expectations, ‘Year of the Snake’ is a very good sign: it is again a song. The epic point that they are given does not finish arriving (there is Edging in this regard, which Mike White would say), but I would say that it seems intentional taking into account that search for the calm we see between the lyrics of the song and, according to what they have revealed in press releases, the content of this new album.
Win and Régine produce with Daniel Lanois (with whom they worked on ‘We Don´t deerve Love’, one of the very well of ‘Everything Now’), and they premiere in instruments (he on drums, she in bass) delivering another of those generational hymns brand of the house, this quite quieter but equally effective: Strang / It’s probony Good. ” Pablo Tocino
«The Arcade Fire’s album is titled ‘Pink Elephant’, an image that is associated with hallucinogenic visions in the Anglo world. The scene of ‘Dumbo’ pink elephants is famous, for example. However, the first advance, ‘Year of the Snake’, is not so hallucinogen or surreal, but promises a colocon that never arrives through a more typical impossible keyboard loop. There are more psychedelic ideas on many completely unknown African albums than here.
‘Year of The Snake’ is one of the supposedly mature compositions of Arcade Fire. Above all, it develops a low flight epic, gradually feeding the crescendo of ‘Year of the Snake’ with effects – or effects – several that do not impress. Although the snake looks silk, snake stays. And the snake lacks poison.
The irony of all this is that ‘Year of The Snake’ is about change and vital transformation. The song aims to offer an inspiring message, encouraging the listener to do with his life “whatever he wants, and not what he should.” However, phrases such as “if you feel something strange, that is good” sound more topical than lucid and production is excessive for such little song. For five long minutes, Arcade Fire stretch more the gum that gave the legs of their elephants ». Jordi Bardají
Charging …