In a press release, Arcade Fire shared that the title Pink Elephant refers to “that paradoxical effect where the effort to suppress a thought leads to it being impossible to avoid.” Unfortunately, despite the group’s attempt to “shed its skin once again and [be] born anew” with “Year Of The Snake,” there is one thought that’s pretty hard to avoid in relation to this entire rollout. Pink Elephant is the first Arcade Fire project since frontman Win Butler was accused of sexual misconduct in 2022, leading both Beck and Feist to step away from the band’s tour in response.
The allegations against Butler also raise some eyebrows about the band’s decision to name its new app—a resource for fan exclusives like early access to tickets, music video premieres, and more—”Circle Of Trust,” a title taken from one of Pink Elephant‘s new songs.
We’ll see how this all filters into the music (or whether fans choose to engage with the music at all) when Pink Elephant releases this spring. You can check out the album’s tracklist below:
