Will Butler and his mawkish band of indie misfits Arcade Fire returned this month with their sixth studio album WE and news of a massive world tour. 

The reviews are in for WE and they’ve proven that the Canadian band’s penchant for fist-pumping choruses and panoramic rock tunes is as divisive as ever. 

From high praise to hatchet job, check out what reviewers are saying about WE below.

Pitchfork

7/10

‘This is still Arcade Fire, and you are unlikely to hear a more ambitious major label rock album in 2022. The lyrics touch on spiritual deliverance and the actual apocalypse; the credits list strings, horns, harp, congas, djembe, fiddle, and Peter Gabriel; influences include Dark Side of the Moon and Martin Luther King Jr. The entire record is structured as a journey from introspective angst (the first side is labeled “I”) to communal transcendence (the second is “We”) as if trying to put the pandemic to bed single-handedly. It’s been a long time since I’ve heard a record try so desperately to move me, which isn’t inherently a bad thing. After all this time, Arcade Fire seem to have learned their imperfections are easier to gloss over when the music sweeps you up and away with it.’

(Words by Sam Sodomsky)

Read Pitchfork’s review in full

NME

4/5

‘Our global journey from fear to appreciation is played out in what Arcade Fire themselves accurately describe as a “concise 40-minute epic”. Philosophically, they haven’t been so focussed since 2010’s The Suburbs, nor so musically dramatic since 2007’s Neon Bible.’

(Words by Mark Beaumont)

Read NME’s review in full 

The Skinny

2/5

‘It’s perhaps no surprise after such a poorly received misfire that they should go here, and some of WE will trigger your sentimentality for this once great band, but ultimately it leaves a void. It’s not the end of the empire, and probably not the end of Arcade Fire, but it sounds like it should be.'

(Words by Tony Inglis)

Read The Skinny’s review in full

The Guardian

3/5

‘If We isn’t a return to the standards Arcade Fire reached on their debut album Funeral or 2010’s The Suburbs, it’s an improvement on its predecessor, and quite possibly enough to avert a slow slide down the festival bills. Those, you suspect, may have been its objectives, in which case: job done.’

(Words by Alexis Petridis)

Read The Guardian’s full review here

Stereogum

No rating

'It’s as ambitious a concept as Arcade Fire have attempted, and they nailed it. Boiled down to its essence, WE tells a story about suffering from a pervasive anxiety you don’t fully understand, opting out of the numbing cycle of streaming and self-medication, allowing all of the world’s thrills and horrors to impact you deeply, and finding the strength to persevere and rebuild through loving connection, all amidst a global collapse. It’s not entirely autobiographical, or even set in our current reality — Butler sings at one point about “watching the moon on the ocean where California used to be” — but there are parts where he and Chassagne seem to be singing directly to each other or their son, rekindling the tender familial love that has animated Arcade Fire from the beginning.'

(Words by Chris DeVille)

Read Stereogum’s full review here

The Line of Best Fit

9/10

‘Deriving its name from the totalitarian dystopia of Yevgeny Zamyatin’s 1921 novel, WE  is a product of troubled times, motivated by lived experience rather than the abstract. The title track fittingly closes with a stylistic full circle reversion to origins, Arcade Fire reinstating the defining shades of their career through a precise and purposeful sequence of tracks – an ouroboros-like reawakening that finds them at their acerbic and celebratory best.’

(Words by Christopher Hamilton-Peach)

Read The Line of Best Fit’s full review here

Consequence of Sound

No rating 

‘WE is sure to be the most polarizing Arcade Fire album yet. On the one hand, fans that were hoping the band would move away from the poppier, disco-centric style they’ve championed over the last decade in favor of their classic indie rock odysseys will certainly appreciate WE. With the two most modern, pop-leaning songs kicking off the album, it’s clear that Butler and co. are using pop as a foil to the more open-ended second half of the album.’

(Words by Paolo Ragusa)

Read Consequence of Sound’s full review here

Arcade Fire’s WE is out now via Columbia Records. Tickets for the band’s UK tour go on sale at 10am on Friday 13 May.