Arcade Fire, Hyde Park

Québécois indie gods Arcade Fire will be opening London’s Hyde Park Festival on July 3 with their closed-eyes, hands-upraised, call-to-prayer-anthems.

Loved by lost souls everywhere, the group are known for titanic concept albums, baroque multi-instrumentalism and lyrics weighty with spiritual enquiry. Founded in 2001 by front-man Win Butler, they shot to fame with 2004’s Funeral. This debut album was joyous: a theatrical piece of art rock, glowing with sensibility and giddy with orchestral flourishes,

Their subsequent albums,  Neon Bible (2007) and The Suburbs (2010) also struck gold and 2013’s vast double album Reflektor was another instant classic, full of empathy and dauntless Big Questions. “If there’s no music in heaven, then what is it for?” Butler yelps. 

Musically, Reflektor is their most polished output to date; the steady hand of LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy is audible in the methodical production. It is incredibly supple: the band touch base with glam-rock, dub, carnival, funk and electronica. It is both gigantic and minutely observed; as in the album’s title track, which repeatedly explodes with arcing guitars and a rush of piano, before retreating into a measured selection of percussion and whispered chant (and is that David Bowie we hear?)

This Hyde Park gig will be quite the occasion. Arcade Fire’s live shows comprise up to 10 performers, flitting around the band’s beating heart of Win Butler and Regine Chassagne, the married couple who generate such famously frenetic live performances. 

With support from Wild Beasts, Band of Skulls, Future Islands and Jake Bugg - and further acts to be announced - don’t wait to book: this will be spectacular.