"Year of the Snake"

10 April 2025

5 mins 10s

Year of the Snake

DAVID and his friend had tickets to see Arcade Fire in 2022. Those tickets went unused, however, when frontman Win Butler was accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women a couple of weeks prior. There was now a vibe around one of our favourite bands of all time, and—to quote Dr Rick Dagless from 'Darkplace'— "some shit sticks no matter how hard you scrape".

That makes 'Year of the Snake' a hard watch and a tough listen. The promo—a carnivalesque road trip directed by Mark Prendergast (in a collaboration with David Wilson and Arcade Fire) —harks back to 'The Suburbs' in places, as well as the cemetery scene in 'Easy Rider'. It's a grand day out for Butler and wife Régine Chassagne, and an obvious bid to present a united front after years of speculation.

It's not an obvious choice for a comeback single, though. 'Year of the Snake' takes it time to reach nowhere in particular, though the melody and instrumentation has its charms. Butler and Chassagne sing: "If you feel strange/It's probably good"—many fans, DAVID included, would love to believe that's true, but we predict an uneasy lead-up to album number seven.

UK

Promos