Here Comes the Night Time

This song was written mostly about Win and Regine's experiences in Port-au-Prince.

As Win said; "There’s a crazy energy in Port-au-Prince when the sun goes down, because there is no electricity in a lot of the city. A lot of parts of the city are pretty dangerous, and people are rushing around trying to get home."

Win says that his time in Port-au-Prince has altered the way he sees life in general, and this song is the most direct representation of that on Reflektor.

The second verse is described by Win as follows; "In the airport in Haiti there are always these packs of missionaries with matching T-shirts that say "God loves Haiti." And you talk to some of these people and you're like, "Oh what are you guys doing here?" And they're like, "Oh we're going to help Haiti! We're going to paint houses!" And you're like, "Well why don't you hire a Haitian to paint the houses? I guarantee they would love to paint a house." So I don't know, it's just like this mashup of missionaries and Port au Prince and that's probably it."

I think this song is about religious zealots such as those who go to an uber-religious country like Haiti and expect to teach the people there about God. When they're already one of the most Godly nations there is.

things are getting dark in the world, and as they get darker people get more and more fearful...

religious personalities and missionaries all play on this fear claiming that we will be left behind if we dont run to the safety of religion, but the truth is that the darkest times bring out the best and worst in people and religion may or may not really make any difference, but getting in line in queue seems to be the latest trend...when its the real righteous that tend to think outside the box and refuse to be sheep just following everyone else...

religion cant save you from what is coming, the darkness is still coming...

they offer a gate to everything you ever dreamed of (heaven) but its locked from the other side, and they dont want you to make the connection between that and the false ideal that anyone can make it to the "top", both lies come from the same place and you are not allowed to attain either, because you are not in the club that controls both lies...as long as they have you believing both lies, then they have you enslaved, running the treadmill for them...

the bit about music is basically that its neither good nor bad in and of itself, but it is used by those that want to push the lies on us, and its also something very much primal about humanity, its a part of us...but its those songs that really strike the heart of truth that make us realize the rules in place now are just an illusion designed to keep us all in the rule makers control...and in the darkness to come the rules wont matter any more, so we have to decide now what we think is important, not what someone tells us is important...

the night time is coming, and they tell us it is our fault, when they engineered it...they are shutting off the lights, we dont have the switch, they do...so who is really to blame? what is our crime? simply being in the room connected to the lights that is connected to the switch that they turn off? that is not the definition of a criminal, that is the definition of a victim...so, be a victim? or refuse to be victimized...that is the choice...

the preacher telling us to look inside for hell is the same old condemnation, the idea that somehow everyone is inherently bad...a parent doing that to a child would be cited for abuse, but govt, religion, and society do this all the time...which is unhealthy...so we have to recognize this and form our own picture of self worth...

instead of looking to the sky for answers, reflection is a more productive route, and actually standing up and being a beacon, a leader, in the darkness, and teaching others how to be the same, is the real answer...we already have what we need inside us...we know the darkness is coming, but instead of letting it turn us into something dark, we have to replace what is being taken away with something brighter...that light they are shutting off was artificial anyway...

On the surface, I think it looks merely like a slam on doomsday-preaching religious zealots, but it's deeper than just religion. The line "The missionaries tell us we will be left behind" seems to be talking about the general alarmist-type fears people have every time the future looks bleak. "Been left behind a thousand times, a thousand times" seems to show that this fear is pointless, since, looking back on all the horrors humanity has gone through, somehow or other we will always come out alive.

All the good stuff happens in the night time.

I love it so much when artists explain the experience of going crazy with music like what win sings in the sixth verse. Here is what Bjork sing in the song “Headphones”: Sounds go through the muscles These abstract wordless movements They start off cells that haven`t been touched before These cells are virgins Waking up slowly… I love both very much!

I see the whole album themed around personal feelings of isolation. I think this song can be seen as an interpretation of the gulf in classes through the lens of religion, so often historically used as a tool of oppression (I say this because personally I'm a theist). I read it as a poor person understanding that when the wealthier see them, they lock their doors. When they hear them they fasten their gates. The beat in this case would be the rhythm-based music that's often associated with lower classes. The missionaries would be those who espouse the "virtues" of trickle-down economics.

I think the religious reading is to obvious for the typical calibre Arcade Fire deal in. But as you might have noticed, I'm pretty pretentious...