The new album by Montreal-based indie rockers Arcade Fire—title: Reflektor—won’t be available until October 29. But The Daily Beast has learned that the first single from the LP will debut in video form on Monday, September 9, at 9 p.m., and that the song is also called “Reflektor.”
Previously, the band's label, Merge Records, confirmed to Rolling Stone that something Arcade Fire–related would be happening at that exact date and time.
Now Dutch photographer cum filmmaker Anton Corbijn, the man behind Nirvana’s iconic “Heart-Shaped Box” video, tells The Daily Beast that the “something” in question is, in fact, his new clip for “Reflektor.”
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“I’m working on a really great song at the moment: Arcade Fire’s new single,” Corbijn says. “The song is called ‘Reflektor,’ and you’ll be able to see it Monday evening.”
Asked to describe the video, Corbijn says he has sworn himself to secrecy. “I can’t say much more than that, because it’s all a surprise,” he explains. “You’ll have to watch the TV Monday evening.”
Earlier today, Arcade Fire posted a teaser for the new album on its official site. The imagery is decidedly Corbijnesque: black and white waves breaking in reverse; various band members slipping in and out of focus as they play.
“Reflektor” will be the first single Arcade Fire has released since its third LP, The Suburbs, won the 2011 Grammy Award for Album of the Year. It will also be the first video Corbijn has directed since 2008, when he made “Viva la Vida” with Coldplay.
In the 2012 documentary Anton Corbijn: Inside Out, Corbijn describes Arcade Fire as playing “music that brings everyone together.”
In the same film, Arcade Fire’s Jeremy Gara tells the cameras that Corbijn “works on what he does in the same way that we work on what we do. He’s passionate about it in a soft-spoken way.”
Sounds like a perfect pairing. We’ll definitely be tuning in Monday evening.
