Arcade Fire Commune With Elephants, Snakes On New Album

A veritable menagerie will be found on Arcade Fire‘s new Columbia album, Pink Elephant, which will be released May 9. The first single, “Year of the Snake,” is out now, in tandem with a video from David Wilson and Mark Prendergast in which group members Win Butler and Régine Chassagne travel from New Orleans to the outskirts of Austin to debut the song at Willie Nelson’s Luck Reunion festival.

“Year of the Snake” is also notable for marking Arcade Fire recorded debuts for Butler on drums and Chassagne on bass. The 10-track Pink Elephant, meanwhile, was recorded at Butler and Chassagne’s New Orleans-based Good News Recording Studio.

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The album includes the vintage song “Cars and Telephones,” which was performed live nine times in 2005 before disappearing for another 13 years. Fans who download Arcade Fire’s Circle of Trust app will have first access to that track (the first Butler ever played for Chassagne some two decades ago), as well as news, videos, merch, ticket offers and band-created Santa Pirata Radio content.

Several other new songs have already been played live at least once as well, including the title cut, “Year of the Snake” and “Ride or Die.”

Pink Elephant is the follow-up to 2022’s WE, which topped Billboard‘s Rock and Alternative tallies and debuted at No. 6 on the overall Billboard 200. It was nominated for the Best Alternative Music Album Grammy.

Arcade Fire is planning pre-release shows in a handful of cities, during which they will play Pink Elephant from front to back in as-yet-unannounced “intimate” venues.

Here is the track list for Pink Elephant:

Open Your Heart or Die Trying
Pink Elephant
Year of the Snake
Circle of Trust
Alien Nation
Beyond Salvation
Ride or Die
I Love Her Shadow
She Cries Diamond Rain
Stuck In My Head

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