Reflektor
Reflektor | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | October 28, 2013 | |||
Recorded | 2011–2013 | |||
Studio |
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Genre | ||||
Length | 75:09 | |||
Language |
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Label |
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Producer |
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Arcade Fire chronology | ||||
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Singles from Reflektor | ||||
Reflektor is the fourth
Influenced by Haitian
Background
The album's origins stem from a trip that both vocalist/guitarist Win Butler and multi-instrumentalist Régine Chassagne took to her family's home country of Haiti. Butler said: "Going to Haiti for the first time with Régine was the beginning of a major change in the way that I thought about the world. Usually, I think you have most of your musical influences locked down by the time you're 16. There was a band I [feel] changed me musically, just really opened me up to this huge, vast amount of culture and influence I hadn't been exposed to before, which was really life-changing."[2] Inspired by the country's rara music, Butler and Chassagne incorporated elements of this sound into the band's new material, alongside Jamaican influences. Butler stated, "I mean, it's not like our band trying to play Haitian music. I just felt like we were opened up to a new influence. Bob Marley probably felt the same way the first time he heard Curtis Mayfield."[2] According to the band's manager Scott Rodger, the album cost $1.6 million to make.[4]
Recording
Recording in
In August 2012, the band also began working with producer and
Regarding the band's decision to record a double album, Win Butler stated, "The record is really long. We intended to make a short record and we ended up with 18 songs that were all between six and eight minutes and we were like, 'Uh oh, I think we screwed up making a short record.' Splitting it over the two halves enables you to get into the different worlds of the records."[2] According to Butler, 50 or 60 songs were written for the album.[6]
Writing and composition
Reflektor is an
The album tracks, "Here Comes the Night Time" and "Here Comes the Night Time II", each appear on the album's respective halves, with Butler noting, "The second one was actually written first and it almost starts the second half of the record – kind of like after the
The track "Supersymmetry" was originally written for the film Her, which the band was composing simultaneously while working on Reflektor. A different version of the song appears during the film's end credits. The instrumentals and theme of "Porno" are featured throughout the movie as well.[9][10]
The lyrics include singing in both English and French.[11]
Promotional campaign
In early August, a cryptic logo, which incorporated the word "reflektor", appeared on the walls of cities around the world. The street art was reported to be part of a guerrilla marketing campaign for the new Arcade Fire album.[12] The upcoming album and its release date had already been announced via a message on Twitter, written as a reply to a single fan. An Instagram account posted pictures of the symbol, and included a video of one being drawn.[13]
On August 26, Arcade Fire confirmed that the work was related to them, with a large mural on a building in downtown Manhattan, which included four of the symbols and the words "Arcade Fire 9pm 9/9".[14] On September 9, 2013, the band released two videos for the first single and title track from the album.[15][16] Win Butler later wrote that the Reflektor graffiti was inspired by Haitian veve drawings.[17]
The Reflektor campaign received negative publicity when an article that appeared in Slate in September 2013 depicted instances of property damage that resulted from the advertisements. The band made an apology, explaining that the viral wall stencils were meant to use chalk or other washable media, rather than spray paint, nor binding glues under the paper advertisements.[18]
The build-up to the release of the album was described by
Artwork
The album's artwork features an image of Auguste Rodin’s sculpture of Orpheus and Eurydice.[20]
Release
The band released a 15-second music clip on
In September 2015, a digital Deluxe edition was released. It featured five new tracks that did not make it on the original album, as well as a new remixed version of "Flashbulb Eyes" by Dennis Bovell featuring Linton Kwesi Johnson. "Get Right" was released as a single. These tracks were also released physically on cassette as The Reflektor Tapes.
Reception
Critical reception
Aggregate scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AnyDecentMusic? | 7.4/10[27] |
Metacritic | 80/100[28] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [29] |
The A.V. Club | B[30] |
The Daily Telegraph | [31] |
Entertainment Weekly | B[32] |
The Guardian | [33] |
The Independent | [34] |
NME | 8/10[35] |
Pitchfork | 9.2/10[36] |
Rolling Stone | [37] |
Spin | 8/10[38] |
Reflektor received generally favorable reviews from music critics. At
Kitty Empire of The Observer was impressed by the album's production and songwriting, but felt that "every track outstays its welcome by a couple of minutes", resulting in Reflektor not being an "astonishing album", but "merely very, very good one instead."[43] In a mixed review, PopMatters journalist J. C. Maçek III said "Reflektor doesn't contain any actually bad songs (the closest we can peg on the collection would be a small amount of filler material), but the impact of a full listen is one of catchy excitement and impressive pop rock which slowly rolls downhill into the murky sonic depths of the more somber second half without any truly punctuating final moment of the record itself."[44] Simon Goddard of Q wrote that Reflektor fails to "fully justify the size of it and it doesn't end so much as unravel" and "is proof you really can have too much of a good thing."[45]
Accolades
Rolling Stone ranked the album at No. 5 on their "50 Best Albums of 2013" list, writing that the fact that album has the "ability to provoke actual feelings is what makes this great."
The album was shortlisted nominee for the 2014 Polaris Music Prize.[50]
The album was nominated at the 57th Grammy Awards for Best Alternative Music Album, whilst the track "We Exist" was additionally nominated for Best Music Video.[51]
Publication | Rank | List |
---|---|---|
Consequence of Sound
|
7 | Top 50 Albums of 2013[52] |
Drowned in Sound | 5 | Drowned in Sound's Favorite Albums of 2013[48] |
Gazeta Wyborcza | 1 | 10 Best Foreign Albums of 2013[49] |
The Line of Best Fit | 15 | Best Fit Fifty: Albums of 2013[53] |
NME | 7 | 50 Best Records of 2013[54] |
Rolling Stone | 5 | 50 Best Albums of 2013[46] |
Stereogum | 10 | The 50 Best Albums of 2013[47] |
Pitchfork | 10 | Top 50 Albums of 2013[55] |
While Pitchfork recognized the album among the decade's "best albums ... so far" in 2014,[3] Reflektor ultimately did not make their list of the best 200 albums of the 2010s.[56]
Track listing
No. | Title | Producer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
0. | "Reflektive Age" (hidden pregap track[note 1]) | Arcade Fire | 10:02 |
1. | "Reflektor" |
| 7:34 |
2. | "We Exist" |
| 5:43 |
3. | "Flashbulb Eyes" |
| 2:42 |
4. | "Here Comes the Night Time" |
| 6:30 |
5. | "Normal Person" |
| 4:22 |
6. | "You Already Know" |
| 3:59 |
7. | "Joan of Arc" ([note 2]) |
| 5:24 |
Total length: | 46:05 |
No. | Title | Producer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Here Comes the Night Time II" | Arcade Fire | 2:51 |
2. | "Awful Sound (Oh Eurydice)" |
| 6:13 |
3. | "It's Never Over (Hey Orpheus)" |
| 6:42 |
4. | "Porno" |
| 6:02 |
5. | "Afterlife" |
| 5:52 |
6. | "Supersymmetry" |
| 11:16 |
Total length: | 38:56 |
No. | Title | Producer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Apocrypha" | Arcade Fire | 5:18 |
2. | "Women of a Certain Age" | Arcade Fire | 3:16 |
3. | "Flashbulb Eyes" (Dennis Bovell remix featuring Linton Kwesi Johnson) |
| 2:49 |
4. | "Soft Power" |
| 5:43 |
5. | "Get Right" |
| 4:41 |
6. | "Crucified Again" | Arcade Fire | 5:03 |
Total length: | 26:40 |
Notes
- ^ On the compact disc release, "Reflektive Age" is a hidden track in the pregap of the CD, consisting of sections of the other tracks on the album played in reverse.
- ^ On the compact disc release, "Joan of Arc" ends with 30 additional seconds of the room tone that also opens "Here Comes the Night Time II".
- ^[a] signifies an additional producer
- "We Exist" is the second track of the album on CD and digital releases, but the fourth on the vinyl version (as the first song of Side B, or 1:4[57]).
Personnel
Personnel adapted from album liner notes.[1]
Arcade Fire
Additional musicians
|
Recording personnel
Artwork
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Commercial performance
The album debuted at number one on the Canadian Albums Chart, selling 49,000 copies. This marks an increase from their previous album's debut week.[58] The album sold 101,000 copies in Canada in 2013.[59]
In the US, the album also reached number one on the
The album debuted at number one in the UK with sales of 45,252.[63]
Charts
Weekly charts
|
Year-end charts
|
Certifications
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Canada (Music Canada)[100] | 3× Platinum | 240,000^ |
France ( SNEP)[102]
|
Gold | 55,000[101] |
United Kingdom (BPI)[104] | Gold | 156,414[103] |
United States | — | 367,000[62] |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
References
- ^ a b c d e f g Reflektor (album liner notes). Arcade Fire. Merge Records / Sonovox Records. 2013.
{{cite AV media notes}}
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- ^ "50 Best Albums of 2013". Rolling Stone. Retrieved September 20, 2016.
- Pitchfork Media. Archived from the originalon February 19, 2014. Retrieved December 3, 2013.
- ^ "Listen to Arcade Fire's Score for Spike Jonze's 'Her'". HYPEBEAST. Retrieved April 7, 2017.
- ^ Dolan, Jon (September 10, 2013). "Arcade Fire – "Reflektor"". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on September 13, 2013. Retrieved November 30, 2013.
- ^ Claire Suddath; Bloomberg Businessweek (October 15, 2013). "Arcade Fire's Marketing Machine Rolls Out Reflektor". businessweek.com. Archived from the original on October 16, 2013.
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