Arcade Fire’s Will Butler has released new single Close My Eyes. The track is the latest release from his upcoming second solo record Generations and comes paired with a meditative self-shot music video of Butler taking a rowboat for a spin around a vast lake.
Resting on a relaxed pop groove that shifts into a lush chorus of anthemic vocal harmonies, the song is said, per a press statement, to explore one’s search for comfort and longing for escape.
“I tried to make the lyrics a straightforward and honest description of an emotion I feel often—a drive for change coupled with despair: ‘I’m tired of waiting for a better day. But I’m scared and I’m lazy and nothing’s gonna change,’” Butler explained. “Kind of a sad song. Trying to tap into some Smokey Robinson/Motown feeling—’I’ve got to dance to keep from crying.’”
Generations will release September 25 and marks Butler’s latest solo studio effort since 2015’s Policy. Collaborating with Miles Francis, Sara Dobbs, and Julie and Jenny Shore, the LP was recorded and produced in the basement of his Brooklyn home. Its debut single, Surrender, was released back in July.
Also earlier in the summer, Butler revealed that Arcade Fire’s new album had been put on hold due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. With bandmembers split across Australia, America, and Canada, and no way of feasibly making the distance, recording had ground to a halt.
“Australia are having a crazy outbreak, the border to Canada is sealed right now… like, Jesus Christ. It takes more logistics to get together. It always took a certain amount of logistics, but right now it’s insurmountable,” Butler said at the time.
He didn’t sound confident that the record would be coming anytime soon and couldn’t determine how far along the recording process the band had got before the pandemic hit. “I’ll only know that when it’s done. Like, ‘Oh, half of it came from before [lockdown]’, or ‘None of it came from before!’. Who knows.”
“None of us quite have the file management skills for it to be creative at the moment.”
