Everything Now

Everything Now is the fifth studio album by Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire, released on July 28, 2017, through Sonovox Records (physical release),[4] Columbia Records and Rough Trade Records.[5] The album was produced by Arcade Fire alongside Thomas Bangalter of the electronic-house duo Daft Punk and Pulp bassist Steve Mackey. Previous collaborator Markus Dravs provides co-production, with additional production by Geoff Barrow of Portishead and Eric Heigle.[6]

This article is about the Arcade Fire album. For the album's title track, see Everything Now (song). For the Pelle Carlberg album, see Everything. Now!

Everything Now
Cover art for digital versions
Studio album by
Arcade Fire
ReleasedJuly 28, 2017 (2017-07-28)
RecordedSeptember 2016 – April 2017
Studio
  • Boombox, New Orleans
  • Sonovox, Montreal
  • Gang, Paris
GenreDance-rock[1][2]
Length47:11
Label
Producer
Arcade Fire chronology
Reflektor
(2013)		 Everything Now
(2017)
Singles from Everything Now
  1. "Everything Now"
    Released: June 1, 2017
  2. "Creature Comfort"
    Released: June 16, 2017
  3. "Signs of Life"
    Released: June 30, 2017
  4. "Electric Blue"
    Released: July 13, 2017
  5. "Put Your Money on Me"
    Released: January 19, 2018[3]

The album is a departure from the sound of their previous records, influenced by synth-pop, dance-rock, and other derivatives of electronic music. The result came as an album that was considered more "digestible" than their previous output. It was promoted through an elaborate marketing campaign, as well as five singles: the title track, "Creature Comfort", "Signs of Life", "Electric Blue", and "Put Your Money on Me".

Upon release, Everything Now proved polarizing with critics. It was named one of the year's best albums by several publications, but was also called a misstep for the band. The album reached number one in several countries, including their home country of Canada, as well as the US and the UK.

Promotion

In May 2017, Arcade Fire performed six new songs at an intimate secret show in Montreal.[7] Later that month, a Twitter account designed to look like a Russian spambot started publishing clues pertaining to the new Arcade Fire album.[8]

On May 31, the band released the lead single "Everything Now" on 12" vinyl, selling it at a merchandise stall at Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona which they headlined.[9] A day later, a mysterious live stream "Live From Death Valley" was launched[10] and the band released a music video for the song,[11] appearing to have been shot in Death Valley, California.

On June 3, anagrams of song titles were published on Twitter.[12]

On June 16, the band published the music video for "Creature Comfort" to its YouTube page. It was marketed with a Facebook post purportedly from a disgruntled "Everything Now Corp" employee railing against the band's refusal to engage in corporate promotion of its new album.[13]

Similar satirical marketing done in promotion of the album stemmed from a fictional agreement the band was in; a "360 degree agreement" proposed by Everything Now Corp, whereby the band created multiple fake online articles related to events happening within the company and band. These include but are not limited to the band providing a "premature premature evaluation" of Everything Now days before release as a spoof of online music reviews, a review of a fake installment in the rhythm video game series Rock Band titled Arcade Fire: Rock Band, and fake advertisements for products based on the names of songs off of Everything Now. A collection of other promotional articles created by the band are included on the side of the fake website that lead to numerous other fake websites.[14]

Infinite Content tour

To promote the album, the band embarked on the Infinite Content tour across Europe and North and South America.[15] To precede the album's release, the band went on a near two-month-long tour of Europe, headlining festivals and their own shows, including smaller venues. They extended the tour into 2018 covering more venues in Europe and North America.

Artwork

The cover of the album features a digital sign of the album title beneath a digital billboard of a mountain range. The billboard sits in front of the actual mountain range that the billboard is displaying, commenting on the blurry line between a genuine object and a marketed one. The back cover features a man riding a horse, a camp fire, and an arcade machine on fire (a visual pun on the band's name.) The entire scene was shot at many points during the course of a day; two variants, labelled "Day" and "Night", were used for CD pressings. Vinyl pressings photographed the title on the cover in one of twenty different languages, and used unique photographs of the scene described above for each, including different times of day and weather patterns. The shrinkwrap for the album was printed with a radial dotted line pattern, suggesting the sky in the photograph was the printed inside of a large dome structure.

Continuing on the commercialization theme, the album booklet folded out to reveal each song and its lyrics as a flyer for a supermarket; the song durations were formatted in the same way dollar amounts are. Each song was also given its own logo in the style of a corporation.

Reception
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
AnyDecentMusic?6.5/10[16]
Metacritic66/100[17]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[18]
The A.V. ClubB[19]
Chicago Tribune[20]
Entertainment WeeklyB+[21]
The Guardian[22]
The Independent[23]
NME[24]
Pitchfork5.6/10[25]
Q[26]
Rolling Stone[27]

At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, Everything Now received an average score of 66 based on 39 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[17] Reviews were polarized, with some praising it as one of the year's best and others stating that it was a serious misstep for the band.

Jeremy Winograd of Slant Magazine claimed that, "The result is by far Arcade Fire's most upbeat and easily digestible album to date."[28] Barry Nicolson of NME wrote that "The Canadian art-rockers are bigger, bolder and more fearful of the future than ever" rating it five stars out of five,[24] while Will Hermes of Rolling Stone praised the album for its lyrical content, writing that it is "treacherous territory, but the band navigates it bravely, especially when it turns the critical lens on itself."[27]

In a mixed review for The Guardian, Alexis Petridis wrote that the "desire to experiment musically isn't enough to make Everything Now a bad album – there are songs worth hearing and genuinely thrilling music here – but rather a flawed one."[22] Jon Pareles of The New York Times wrote that "The title song finds a breezy balance between earnestness and exhilaration. Elsewhere, that balance falters, and Everything Now becomes a slighter album than its predecessors."[29] Equally negative, Brendan Frank of Pretty Much Amazing wrote that "For the first time in their career, Arcade Fire haven’t made a record; they've manufactured one."[30] Jeremy Larson of Pitchfork wrote that "Conceptually, the songs don't transcend their social critique, they succumb to it."[25] Robert Christgau wrote in 2018 that he had only "laid off" the album because he currently doesn't "feel obliged to nail down every possible Honorable Mention" and mused it might deserve a one-star honorable mention, " a worthy effort consumers attuned to its overriding aesthetic or individual vision may well like",[31] but added, "I don't consider it my obligation to history to make that call."[32]

Accolades
Publication Accolade Year Rank Ref.
Drowned in Sound Favourite Albums of 2017
2017
100
[33]
NME NME's Albums of the Year 2017
2017
29
[34]

Commercial performance

Everything Now debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 with 100,000 album-equivalent units, of which 94,000 were pure album sales.[35] It is Arcade Fire's third US number-one album.[35]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Arcade Fire.

Everything Now[5][36]
No.TitleProducer(s)Length
1."Everything_Now (Continued)"Arcade Fire0:46
2."Everything Now" (contains elements from "The Coffee Cola Song" written by Francis Bebey)
5:03
3."Signs of Life"
  • Arcade Fire
  • Mackey
  • Bangalter
4:36
4."Creature Comfort"
4:43
5."Peter Pan"
2:48
6."Chemistry"
  • Arcade Fire
  • Dravs
3:37
7."Infinite Content"Arcade Fire1:37
8."Infinite_Content"Arcade Fire1:41
9."Electric Blue"
  • Arcade Fire
  • Mackey
  • Bangalter
  • Dravs
4:02
10."Good God Damn"
  • Arcade Fire
  • Mackey
3:34
11."Put Your Money on Me"
  • Arcade Fire
  • Mackey
  • Bangalter
  • Eric Heigle
5:53
12."We Don't Deserve Love"Arcade Fire6:29
13."Everything Now (Continued)"Arcade Fire2:22
Total length:47:11

Credits and personnel

Credits adapted from liner notes[4] and Tidal.[37]

Arcade Fire

Production

  • Arcade Fire – production
  • Steve Mackey – production
  • Thomas Bangalter – production
  • Markus Dravs – co-production (tracks 5, 9), additional production (track 6)
  • Geoff Barrow – additional production (track 4)
  • Eric Heigle – additional production (track 11), recording
  • Mark Lawson – additional recording
  • Iain Berryman – additional recording
  • Korey Richey – additional recording
  • Florian Lagatta – additional recording
  • Craig Silvey – mixing
  • Max Prior – mixing assistance
  • Greg Calbi – mastering

Additional musicians

  • Sarah Neufeld – backing vocals, string arrangements (tracks 3, 10), strings (tracks 1-3, 6–8, 10, 11, 13)
  • Owen Pallett – string arrangements, piano (track 6), strings (tracks 1-3, 6–8, 10, 11, 13)
  • Arcade Fire – string arrangements
  • Daniel Lanois – pedal steel (tracks 11, 12)
  • Thomas Bangalter – synthesizer (track 2), programming (track 11)
  • Geoff Barrow – synthesizer (track 4)
  • Mark Lawson – MPC (track 6)
  • Stuart Bogie – saxophone (tracks 3, 5, 6), flute (track 5)
  • Matt Bauder – saxophone (track 6)
  • Charlie Gabriel – saxophone (track 5)
  • Patrick Bebey – pygmy flute (track 2)
  • Willonson Duprate – congas (tracks 3, 5, 6, 10)
  • Jean "Diol Kidi" Edmond – congas (tracks 3, 5, 6, 10)
  • Korey Richey – drum machine (track 3)
  • Rebecca Crenshaw – strings (tracks 1–3, 10, 13)
  • Helen Gillet – strings (tracks 1–3, 10, 13)
  • Harmonistic Praise Crusade Choir (track 2)
  • Akia Nevills – choir vocals (tracks 4, 6)
  • Kayla Jasmine – choir vocals (tracks 4, 6)
  • Tracci Lee – choir vocals (tracks 4, 6)
  • Jelly Joseph – choir vocals (tracks 4, 6)

Design

  • JR – artwork
  • Marc Azoulay – artwork assistance
  • Camille Pajot – artwork assistance
  • Guillaume Cagniard – artwork assistance
  • Ping Pong Ping – album graphic design
  • Anton Corbijn – band portrait

Charts

Certifications and sales
Region CertificationCertified units/sales
Canada (Music Canada)[71] Platinum 80,000
United Kingdom (BPI)[72] Gold 100,000
Summaries
Worldwide — 500,000[73]

Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

References
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  2. Schonfeld, Zach (July 28, 2017). "Arcade Fire 'Everything Now' Review: A Disco-Tinted Mess of an Album". Newsweek. Retrieved July 30, 2017.
  3. "Put Your Money on Me - 12". Arcade Fire (official website). Retrieved December 1, 2017.
  4. Everything Now (album liner notes). Arcade Fire. Sonovox Records, Columbia Records. 2017.CS1 maint: others (link)
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