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.
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/