Pink Elephant

The title Pink Elephant refers to the effect that the more you try to suppress a thought, the harder it becomes to avoid. Butler and his spouse/bandmate Régine Chassagne produced the album with the legendary Daniel Lanois at Butler and Chassagne’s Good News Recording Studio in New Orleans. One of its 10 songs is, in fact, called “Circle Of Trust.” “Cars And Telephones,” the old song the band has been playing live — which, according to a press release, is the first song Butler ever played for Chassagne — is not on the album but is available to hear in the app along with a music video. And speaking of music videos, Arcade Fire have one today for the actual lead single, “Year Of The Snake.”
So named because 2025 is the Year of the Snake in the Chinese Zodiac, the song is all about how times are weird and bad, but feeling uncomfortable can be positive. “It’s the season of change, and if you you feel strange/ It’s probably good,” goes the chorus. The final refrain: “It’s the year of the snake, so let your heart break.” The song’s video follows Butler and Chassagne road tripping in their 1990s Ford Aerostar, from Mardi Gras in their adopted hometown to the rodeos of Butler’s native Houston. Ultimately it leads to Willie Nelson’s Luck Ranch, where the aforementioned intimate jester performance went down last month.

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