A week after news
started appearing about their new single, and barely 24 hours after the two tracks from said single leaked onto the internet, Montreal melancholy indie supergroup The Arcade Fire have officially confirmed the release. It's called ‘The Suburbs’, and it'll be released on a limited edition 12" backed with ‘Month of May’.
The tracks leaked after a record buyer in Glasgow found the 12” in a local record store and leaked them to the BBC, who happily put them to air. Predictably enough, rips of the broadcasts ended up on Bittorrent etc shortly after. You can now hear proper version of both songs streaming at the band’s website
here, where they’ve also posted the
lyrics. Take the time to click on some of the word, too. You’ll see why. The 12” single is out locally through Spunk on Tuesday 1 June.
The band’s new album is also called
The Suburbs. It’s their third studio album and the first since 2007’s
Neon Bible. You can see the cover art and pre-order the record at the band’s
website. Singer Win Butler told the
NME that the title refers to growing up in the suburbs of Houston, where he and his brother – bass and synth player Will Butler – moved at an early age: “We moved to the suburbs of Houston when we were young. Being a very young child, it's like going to Mars or something.”
The band also posted a handwritten note about the album and single – on lovely Arcade Fire letterhead, no less – on their website. Have a read:
The album is out locally on Monday 2 August, again on Spunk.