After months — nay, years — of anticipation, 2 singles, and a couple thousand inspired tweets about the leak, Arcade Fire’s third album (and second best, IMO), The Suburbs, can now be heard, legally and for free. Also, the record officially hit shelves in the UK today with a Stateside release set for tomorrow. All 16 sprawling (pardon the pun) tracks are streaming at NPR right now.
That alone would make this an epic week for new music already, but let’s not forget Thursday’s live concert webcast of Arcade Fire in New York City, directed by the one and only Terry Gilliam. “Our CD release [party] is kind of going to be at Madison Square Garden,” says an animated, cannibalistic Win Butler in a teaser video for the show. Marcel Dzama (Beck, Spike Jonze, Royal Art Lodge collaborator) and Johannes Gamble animated the quaint 1-minute short. Watch it below: