Canadian group Arcade Fire pays tribute to Haiti
10/30/2013 Montreal, Canada - The Canadian group Arcade Fire, who officially released their latest album "Reflector" October 29, paid tribute to Haiti in the new heavily influenced by the Haitian rara opus. "We could not have done this album without Haiti," said Win Butler, lead singer of the group. The group, which has already traveled to Haiti several times in recent years, told Rolling Stone that the songs on Reflector illustrate the significant experiences in the group stays in Haiti, including the song "Here comes the night time." Reflektor is long and weird and indulgent and deeply committed. It has three to five
genuinely great songs; it also wanders off into the filler hinterlands for 20 minutes or so (out of 70). Even at its island-vibes worst, it never sinks below the level of that Sublime song about the L.A. riots, and it's cool if you still like that song. FOH lyrical moments are kept to a minimum ("What if the camera / Really do / Take your soul / Oh no!"). James Murphy produces the hell out of it — the title track alone is a nervy, propulsive near-masterpiece of ambient ennui — but in terms of fellow underground-darling-to-Grammy-crasher success stories, the whole shebang owes less to Murphy's LCD Soundsystem than to Vampire Weekend, from whom Win Butler and co. most likely learned to use their passport stamps as musical inspiration without coming across (well, to most people, anyway) as craven imperialist marauders. In performance last Thursday in Haiti Litte Miami, singer Butler is committed to support the reconstruction efforts in Haiti. "Haiti will return. We believe that we can build together, Haitians will build and we support them, "said he said.
