I think this song has many subplots but one recurring theme: solitude and delusion in overcoming it. There are at least four plots one could find in the lyrics: 1) Butler and Chassagne’s own experience as lovers and artists 2) the solitude of the artist and the delusion of fame as a bridge to salvation 3) distrust in technology as a way for people to create deep emotional connections 4) search for spirituality. The delusional longing for salvation, for heaven, is typified by the reflector: a powerful source of artificial light or a device that bends and sends off light from some other source.
Subplot #1-2: Love and Art
A musician is like a prism of light, converting inner emotions and ideas into sounds just like white light is reflected into visible colors by a prism. But a natural gift can be a blessing and a trap, since you can’t escape yourself and your ‘destiny’, you can’t “break free” as Butler sings lines later.
The horizon of light during a concert, stage in full light, public in darkness, resembles the boundary between night and day, a time when according to many beliefs death and life get together. Les royaumes des vivants et des morts entre la nuit et l’aurore People idealize rockstars but once on the stage you feel alone, you can’t see the public, the reflectors make you blind in a desert of white light, and if you can’t see who is standing on the other side, that is is just like being in a darkness, a darkness of light. Love for Regina was born on the stage, probably the two found a deep connection in making art together, which forms a strong bond of complicity.
People generally think of fame as heaven; of performing on a stage as one of the highest achievements a person can attain. But Win wouldn’t care if he couldn’t find Regina there.
This is because fame and art are not an end in itself; are not the connector to salvation/happiness, they are just a reflector and should be taken at face value, without giving them other metaphysical meanings. After all, we all know too well how many musicians and actors, while shining bright on a stage, were suffering inside and could find no solace in celebrity status, sometimes even coming to .
Win met Regina when he was 19 (ok, he was 20) and moved to Montreal to attend McGill university. She is the real home for his soul, something that is ‘more’ than the heaven you can find in performing music. The fruit of their love, their music, is now deflected and ‘escapes’ into little silver discs (CDs) or broken into bits (MP3). Broken, indeed. Transmission of communication is a connection but also loses a degree of meaning. No longer a personal expression of self, it becomes art, a universal and impersonal form of expression. It also becomes material, ‘plastic’, artificial. Once you are in the hands of the public as an artist, you wonder if you can break free and escape from this destiny. There is a huge inner pressure, fear of ‘messing around’, fear of the consequences from leaving the stage or the possibility that critics and public turn against the artist (will they break me?) or that difficulty in coping with success will trigger a mental breakdown.
In the end, one could think art would bring the artist to resurrection/glory/salvation/inner peace, but that was an illusion. Art is a game of reflection. Heaven is somewhere else.
And we go back to the initial scene, on the stage. Under the reflector the performer can’t see the public on the other side. But will they see us one day? Will they see what their music represents for each of us? And will we get the whole message of their music? Will we make a deep connection, one that goes across the separation line between the stage and the public? Will we feel together?
Subplot #3: Technology
There is a more general meaning hidden in the song. This is the reflective age, one where technology is idolized as a tool of progress that helps people get together. But does it really?
We call people ‘friends’ on Facebook who are barely acquaintances in real life. Some teens find love behind the screen. We all make use of social networks, dating websites and other apps that deflect and send false images of ourselves, reflections. We choose the best pictures, we want to appear at our best. So, are we really able to see ourselves on the two sides of a screen? Can we go beyond the reflection of a reflection? Is technology really salvific for overcoming our fear of isolation? No, it is no resurrector, it is just a reflector. A false myth that should create no illusion in people. In this sense, on social networks we’re all like actors on a stage and we can’t see who is watching us perform on the other side. This means it makes us more alone, even if we think we are not.
Subplot #4: False Myths and Inner Search
The only possible resurrection is inside yourself, the only dimension when one can really be sure not to follow reflectors and other beams of false light. “A place to be alone” where one can recognize that the most powerful principle in life is love (you’re my home). This message is more apparent when one listens to ‘Reflektor’ as the first track of a deeply religious and spiritual album. In many songs there is a call on ‘looking inside’ for heaven (track “Here comes the night time”) and not listen to ‘Missionaries’. Success, religion, society are reflectors of false answers. These are the usual critiques of Arcade Fire against the main tenets of modern life, a theme they widely explored in previous albums like Neon Bible and the Suburbs.
I think this song has many subplots but one recurring theme: solitude and delusion in overcoming it. There are at least four plots one could find in the lyrics: 1) Butler and Chassagne’s own experience as lovers and artists 2) the solitude of the artist and the delusion of fame as a bridge to salvation 3) distrust in technology as a way for people to create deep emotional connections 4) search for spirituality. The delusional longing for salvation, for heaven, is typified by the reflector: a powerful source of artificial light or a device that bends and sends off light from some other source.
Subplot #1-2: Love and Art A musician is like a prism of light, converting inner emotions and ideas into sounds just like white light is reflected into visible colors by a prism. But a natural gift can be a blessing and a trap, since you can’t escape yourself and your ‘destiny’, you can’t “break free” as Butler sings lines later. The horizon of light during a concert, stage in full light, public in darkness, resembles the boundary between night and day, a time when according to many beliefs death and life get together. Les royaumes des vivants et des morts entre la nuit et l’aurore People idealize rockstars but once on the stage you feel alone, you can’t see the public, the reflectors make you blind in a desert of white light, and if you can’t see who is standing on the other side, that is is just like being in a darkness, a darkness of light. Love for Regina was born on the stage, probably the two found a deep connection in making art together, which forms a strong bond of complicity. People generally think of fame as heaven; of performing on a stage as one of the highest achievements a person can attain. But Win wouldn’t care if he couldn’t find Regina there. This is because fame and art are not an end in itself; are not the connector to salvation/happiness, they are just a reflector and should be taken at face value, without giving them other metaphysical meanings. After all, we all know too well how many musicians and actors, while shining bright on a stage, were suffering inside and could find no solace in celebrity status, sometimes even coming to . Win met Regina when he was 19 (ok, he was 20) and moved to Montreal to attend McGill university. She is the real home for his soul, something that is ‘more’ than the heaven you can find in performing music. The fruit of their love, their music, is now deflected and ‘escapes’ into little silver discs (CDs) or broken into bits (MP3). Broken, indeed. Transmission of communication is a connection but also loses a degree of meaning. No longer a personal expression of self, it becomes art, a universal and impersonal form of expression. It also becomes material, ‘plastic’, artificial. Once you are in the hands of the public as an artist, you wonder if you can break free and escape from this destiny. There is a huge inner pressure, fear of ‘messing around’, fear of the consequences from leaving the stage or the possibility that critics and public turn against the artist (will they break me?) or that difficulty in coping with success will trigger a mental breakdown. In the end, one could think art would bring the artist to resurrection/glory/salvation/inner peace, but that was an illusion. Art is a game of reflection. Heaven is somewhere else. And we go back to the initial scene, on the stage. Under the reflector the performer can’t see the public on the other side. But will they see us one day? Will they see what their music represents for each of us? And will we get the whole message of their music? Will we make a deep connection, one that goes across the separation line between the stage and the public? Will we feel together?
Subplot #3: Technology There is a more general meaning hidden in the song. This is the reflective age, one where technology is idolized as a tool of progress that helps people get together. But does it really? We call people ‘friends’ on Facebook who are barely acquaintances in real life. Some teens find love behind the screen. We all make use of social networks, dating websites and other apps that deflect and send false images of ourselves, reflections. We choose the best pictures, we want to appear at our best. So, are we really able to see ourselves on the two sides of a screen? Can we go beyond the reflection of a reflection? Is technology really salvific for overcoming our fear of isolation? No, it is no resurrector, it is just a reflector. A false myth that should create no illusion in people. In this sense, on social networks we’re all like actors on a stage and we can’t see who is watching us perform on the other side. This means it makes us more alone, even if we think we are not.
Subplot #4: False Myths and Inner Search The only possible resurrection is inside yourself, the only dimension when one can really be sure not to follow reflectors and other beams of false light. “A place to be alone” where one can recognize that the most powerful principle in life is love (you’re my home). This message is more apparent when one listens to ‘Reflektor’ as the first track of a deeply religious and spiritual album. In many songs there is a call on ‘looking inside’ for heaven (track “Here comes the night time”) and not listen to ‘Missionaries’. Success, religion, society are reflectors of false answers. These are the usual critiques of Arcade Fire against the main tenets of modern life, a theme they widely explored in previous albums like Neon Bible and the Suburbs.