Arcade Fire

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Arcade Fire is a Canadian indie rock band from Montreal. Win Butler and Josh Deu founded the group around 2001, after meeting at secondary school. At university Régine Chassagne joined, and later Richard Reed Parry, Tim Kingsbury and Jeremy Gara came on board. Earlier, in 2002, the group had recorded an EP on Butler's family farm in Maine. In 2003 it signed a contract with the independent label Merge Records.

Music and breakthrough

In 2004 Funeral appeared, the debut album, which deals with the deaths of several relatives of the band members. It received glowing reviews and appears on many lists of the best albums of the 2000s. Neon Bible followed in 2007 and The Suburbs in 2010, then Reflektor in 2013, Everything Now in 2017 and WE in 2022. All the albums from Funeral to WE received a Grammy nomination for best alternative album. The band is described as indie rock, art rock and baroque pop. The members play guitar, bass, drums, piano, violin, cello, accordion, harp and many other instruments, and constantly swap places during a performance.

Influence

Arcade Fire showed that an independent label and a group with a big, almost orchestral sound could reach the rock world in the 2000s. Influences cited include David Bowie, Talking Heads, Bruce Springsteen and Roxy Music.

Listening

Discography

Studio albums

• 2004Funeral
• 2007Neon Bible
• 2010The Suburbs
• 2013Her (soundtrack)
• 2013Reflektor
• 2017Everything Now
• 2022WE
• 2025Pink Elephant

Mentioned in other articles

• Funeral AlbumArcade Fire recorded its debut album largely in one week in August 2003, at Hotel2Tango in Montreal, entirely analogue.

See also

• WE