Arcade Fire: when did it get so bad?

Photo credit: @santicovs

When the flame fades

We could bore you to death about Arcade Fire’s new album Pink Elephant and how it, frankly, isn’t good — and at best is just a plain snoozefest. One of our team members called it elevator music, and on a re-listen, the experience felt more like being on hold with a call centre. So instead of powering through it again, we asked ourselves: when did the band get this bad?

It’s been over two decades since Funeral (2004) reshaped indie rock. Neon Bible (2007) and The Suburbs (2010) cemented the band as generational voices. Their spark began to fade however, somewhere between the dance-tinged misfire of Reflektor (2013) and the half-hearted nostalgia of Everything Now (2017), which gave us occasional gems like “Creature Comfort” and “Put your money on me”, but otherwise was largely padded with filler. WE (2022) felt more like a contractual obligation rather than a creative statement — and Pink Elephant continues that downward slide.

From opener to closer, Pink Elephant plays like forgettable background noise — sweeping melodies flattened into bland wallpaper and once-dramatic swells deflated by overpolished production that robs every track of urgency or edge. Combined with the shadow of recent sexual-assault allegations and rumors of a certain band member reduced to tears over missing a hotel breakfast window, the album’s glossy veneer only magnifies its emptiness.

Maybe Arcade Fire just don’t work in 2025. Maybe their particular brand of indie-rock catharsis only truly landed in a post-emo world where everyone’s favourite movie was Juno. But with emo’s revival, perhaps there’s no longer space for them in the shrinking gap between 2000s nostalgia and today’s pop landscape.

Whatever the reason, Pink Elephant marks a new low. Arcade Fire haven’t been good in a long time — but they’ve never sounded this tired.