Everything Now

Too much choice. Too much content.

Not enough connection.

The anxiety of having everything you could possibly want, but never what you really need.

As seems to be a big theme of this album, this song is about how everything you’ve ever seen/ heard/ experienced shapes your mind. This song sets the stage for the bigger messages later to be found in the album and it ties into all of them so it can’t necessarily be analyzed by itself, but a big part of this song in particular is about being trapped inside the headspace everything you’ve experienced created. Instead of living in the present and just experiencing you become trapped in a loop of wanting more, not feeling content when you have it, gaining that clarity for a moment in those moments of pure openness but then falling back in the trap.

It’s kind of hole having everything available to you readily has created. Basically everything now is about wanting everything now but never actually appreciating it while being trapped inside your head of everything you’ve experienced. The bookend of the album, everything now continued, is basically when it’s all taken over you again and yet again you are trapped in the headspace trying to get back to that feeling of living, hence the muted dulled tones and the loop back of the whole album.

Ok I'll give this a go - this song is about people (specifically young Americans hence the term 'pledge allegiance') never being satisfied with what they have, and in doing so, abandoning the truly important things like family values. Demanding more and more, 'pretending' that they have 'everything' on social media. It's never enough, 'turning speakers up till they break'. They are unfortunately encouraged by all today's crappy music that glorifies this mentality 'every song Ive ever heard is playing at the same time it's absurd'. Much like 'reflektor', 'the sprawl', 'neighborhoods' and many other arcade fire songs, it's a clever condemnation of today's misguided youth.

Everything has changed for me since this track dropped. It speaks of the vacuity of modern consumerist culture.

The more there is to hear, the less we can hear at all.

This song is called “Everything Now”— it’s the title track and lead single from the album. And it establishes the paradoxical theme that runs throughout the album: that although technology makes life better in some ways, in other ways, it makes things worse.

The song begins with a short downbeat prelude. We hear front man Win Butler lamenting that there is no way to return home from a condition he calls “Everything Now. ” The lament crescendos into a cacophony of bewildering noise…and then…it explodes into the song’s main musical motif, a catchy dance riff that is reminiscent of old-school, big-production disco, and has been compared especially to ABBA.

As the song progresses, Butler congratulates us for having everything now. He’s referring to the glut of readily accessible information, entertainment, and shopping options we now have in the digital age. The irony here is that while these things make life better in some ways, they come with their own (perhaps more formidable) problems. For Butler, this overabundance of stimulation ultimately amounts to a whole lot of noise.

♪ Every song that I’ve ever heard is playing at the same time, it’s absurd.

And we realize the cacophonous build-up that occurred between the prelude and the groovy ABBA-like riff. That was the build-up of noise in our digital age. There’s so much information and stimulation out there that we don’t know how to process it all.

This is part of a review of "Everything Now" that is available here: http://whatsthisalbumabout.podbean.com/e/ep-7-everything-now-by-arcade-fire/

I saw them perform last night...they began the show with this song and it sounded incredible. I am not one to be starstruck but they walked past me within a few feet as they were leaving the stage and I got completely starstruck and tears fell out of my eyes. Best concert I have ever seen, and I have seen many in my time.

I saw them last night. They were very very good. As mentioned above they opened with this. I had to laugh at the irony of so many people watching the band perform this song (and all others) through the screen of their cell phones rather than just enjoying the show.....................

Everything Now is a song about current world, but most specifically about how internet is giving us "Everything now". Even things we don't need

Just check at this:

"Every inch of space in your head Is filled up with the things that you read"

That's about the information you get in the internet an how it jas become the first source of knowledge. It may refer to wikipedia

"And every film that you've ever seen Fills the spaces up in your dreams"

That's about how marketing keeps you jumping from one to another movie that you don't even have time to dream. It may refer to youtube

"Every song that I've ever heard Is playing at the same time, it's absurd"

I think you can get this one. It may refer spotify/apple music

"We turn the speakers up till they break 'Cause every time you smile it's a fake! Stop pretending, you've got"

Here basically talks about selfies and how they pretend to show happiness. It may refer Instagram/Facebook

"'Til every room in my house is filled with shit I couldn't live without"

Pretty clear, right? Amazon, Ebay, Ali express...

"I need it (Everything now!) I want it (Everything now!) I can't live without (Everything now!) I can't live without (Everything now!) (Everything now!)"

Now you can get what the chorus is about (pretty catchy by the way)

Then it ends with a very pesimistic message

Every inch of space in my heart is filled with something I'll never start The ashes of everything now And then you're black again Can't make it back again From everything now"

Ok, the big message of the song is summarized in those lines. We are so concerned about having things and not about loving, that we could probably forget how to love. That love has been consumed by the fire of "everything now" And there's no way back, "Everything now" came to stay.

It is amazing how this song reflects on current world in a very pesimistic way using a somehow cheerful tune that could have been easily produced during the 70s

Amazing song...

Stuffocation It's about people trying to cram 'experiences' in to their life, filling every bit of their head with things they've read, filling their dreams with movies they've watched, turning up the volume to the max to fill our ears with songs, filling their house with crap they've bought. Working hard to fill our lives with shit we don't need, but we're convinced we need. And the thing that matters, our hearts, are filled with stuff we'll never start - I think that means our hearts are full of emptiness. For example, Dads not spending time with their kids cause they are too busy working to pay for more shit. At the end of the music video the play in front of a sign displaying "Everything Now" and they burn it down at night. The end of the song implies to me that all our stuff is shit and it needs to be burned to the ground. But maybe it means if you burn down all your stuff, and that's all you've worked on then you'll have nothing but blackness. In which case you're trapped, you need to burn it down but you can't. The last paragraph is enigmatic.

I was married to a hoarder. The house got filled up with more and more crap. Nothing could be thrown away. She kept buying more stuff all the time. She was always busy doing shit that didn't matter. I just wanted to go for a walk together or sit in the park but we never did. I felt engulfed/suffocated by all the shit everywhere. I couldn't burn it all down - that doesn't work in real life. But I got out, which was like burning everything down.

That's what I think the song is about, people stuffing their heads, ears, time, space with shit they don't need, leaving their hearts empty, not spending time with the people they love cause they are too busy working to buy more shit, and you'd be better off burning all the shit you've accumulated.