Arcade Fire

This article is about the band. For the EP from the band, see Arcade Fire (EP).

Arcade Fire
Arcade Fire performing live in 2017
Arcade Fire performing live in 2017
Background information
OriginMontreal, Quebec, Canada
Genres
DiscographyArcade Fire discography
Years active2001–present
Labels
Members
Past members
Websitearcadefire.com

Arcade Fire is a Canadian indie rock band from Montreal, Quebec, consisting of husband and wife Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, alongside Richard Reed Parry, Tim Kingsbury and Jeremy Gara. The band's touring line-up also includes former core member Sarah Neufeld and multi-instrumentalists Paul Beaubrun and Dan Boeckner. Each of the band's studio albums features contributions from composer and violinist Owen Pallett.

Founded in 2001 by friends and classmates Butler and Josh Deu, the band came to prominence in 2004 with the release of their critically acclaimed debut album Funeral. Their second studio album, Neon Bible, won them the 2008 Meteor Music Award for Best International Album and the 2008 Juno Award for Alternative Album of the Year. Their third studio album, The Suburbs, was released in 2010 to critical acclaim and commercial success.[2] It received many accolades, including the 2011 Grammy for Album of the Year, the 2011 Juno Award for Album of the Year and the 2011 Brit Award for Best International Album. In 2013, Arcade Fire released their fourth album, Reflektor, and scored the feature film Her, for which band members Will Butler and Owen Pallett were nominated in the Best Original Score category at the 86th Academy Awards. In 2017, the band released their fifth studio album Everything Now, which was succeeded by their sixth studio album We in 2022.[3]

All the band's studio albums have received nominations for Best Alternative Music Album at the Grammys. Funeral is widely considered by music critics to be one of the greatest albums of the 2000s.[4] The band's work has also been named three times as a shortlist nominee for the Polaris Music Prize: in 2007 for Neon Bible, in 2011 for The Suburbs and in 2014 for Reflektor.

The band has been described as indie rock,[5] art rock,[6] dance-rock,[7][8] and baroque pop.[9] They play guitar, drums, bass guitar, piano, violin, viola, cello, double bass, xylophone, glockenspiel, keyboard, synthesizer, French horn, accordion, harp, mandolin and hurdy-gurdy, and take most of these instruments on tour; the multi-instrumentalist band members switch duties throughout shows.

  1. ^ Kim, Michelle (May 31, 2017). "Arcade Fire Sign to Columbia". PItchfork. Retrieved May 31, 2017.
  2. ^ Richards, Chris (February 14, 2011). "Esperanza Spalding, Arcade Fire top a night of upsets at 2011 Grammys". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 14, 2011.
  3. ^ "Complete List Of Arcade Fire Albums And Discography". Classic RockHistory. September 6, 2022.
  4. ^ "Best Albums of the Decade: A Roundup of Critic Lists - Metacritic". Metacritic. Archived from the original on February 13, 2023. Retrieved January 26, 2013.
  5. ^ O'Hagan, Sean (November 28, 2010). "Arcade Fire: 'The cliched rock life never seemed that cool to us'". The Observer. Retrieved October 12, 2016. Arcade Fire – a multi-instrumental, mixed gender, seven-piece indie-rock group...
  6. ^ "Arcade Fire: Art-Rock Fueled by Eclecticism and Pain". NPR. June 4, 2007. Retrieved October 12, 2016.
  7. ^ Feldberg, Isaac (July 27, 2017). "An overload from Arcade Fire". The Boston Globe. Retrieved July 28, 2017.
  8. ^ Schonfeld, Zach (July 28, 2017). "Arcade Fire 'Everything Now' Review: A Disco-Tinted Mess of an Album". Newsweek. Retrieved July 30, 2017.
  9. ^ Ugwu, Reggie (October 3, 2013). "Arcade Fire's 'Reflektor': What We Learned From An Early Listen". Billboard. Retrieved March 21, 2018.