Arcade Fire's Will Butler recently announced plans to release his sophomore solo album Generations, and today the details of the LP have emerged, along with a new music video.
Generations was recorded in the basement of Butler's Brooklyn home. Tracking for the release finished in March, right before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Today, he's previewed the release with a music video for the song "Surrender."
Here's what Butler had to say about the new single:
"Surrender" is masquerading as a love song, but it's more about friendship. About the confusion that comes as people change — didn't you use to have a different ideal? Didn't we have the same ideal at some point? Which of us changed? How did the world change? Relationships that we sometimes wish we could let go of, but that are stuck within us forever.
It's also about trying to break from the first-person view of the world. "What can I do? What difference can I make?" It's not about some singular effort — you have to give yourself over to another power. Give over to people who have gone before who've already built something — you don't have to build something new! The world doesn't always need a new idea, it doesn't always need a new personality. What can you do with whatever power and money you've got? Surrender it over to something that's already made. And then the song ends with an apology — I'm sorry I've been talking all night. Cause talking like that, man, not always useful.
Watch the video for "Surrender" below. Generations arrives on September 25 via Merge.
Generations:
1. Outta Here
2. Bethlehem
3. Close My Eyes
4. I Don't Know What I Don't Know
5. Surrender
6. Hide It Away
7. Hard Times
8. Promised
9. Not Gonna Die
10. Fine
Generations was recorded in the basement of Butler's Brooklyn home. Tracking for the release finished in March, right before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Today, he's previewed the release with a music video for the song "Surrender."
Here's what Butler had to say about the new single:
"Surrender" is masquerading as a love song, but it's more about friendship. About the confusion that comes as people change — didn't you use to have a different ideal? Didn't we have the same ideal at some point? Which of us changed? How did the world change? Relationships that we sometimes wish we could let go of, but that are stuck within us forever.
It's also about trying to break from the first-person view of the world. "What can I do? What difference can I make?" It's not about some singular effort — you have to give yourself over to another power. Give over to people who have gone before who've already built something — you don't have to build something new! The world doesn't always need a new idea, it doesn't always need a new personality. What can you do with whatever power and money you've got? Surrender it over to something that's already made. And then the song ends with an apology — I'm sorry I've been talking all night. Cause talking like that, man, not always useful.
Watch the video for "Surrender" below. Generations arrives on September 25 via Merge.
Generations:
1. Outta Here
2. Bethlehem
3. Close My Eyes
4. I Don't Know What I Don't Know
5. Surrender
6. Hide It Away
7. Hard Times
8. Promised
9. Not Gonna Die
10. Fine