The return of Arcade Fire

Read our track-by-track guide to ‘The Suburbs’ – complete with notes from the band themselves.

We also review the new album in the new issue. Emily Mackay describes it as “their ‘Automatic For The People’; an album that combines mass accessibility with much greater ambition.”

Find out more about how Arcade Fire wrote ‘The Suburbs’ by watching our video interview.

The band also took a hands-on approach to making the album itself. Instead of relying on a fancy studio, they built studio areas in their own houses – Will Butler’s was in a kitchen cupboard.

Arcade Fire are keen to promote their involvement with the Haiti charity Kanpe. They recently announced onstage that if they can raise a million dollars from the public, they’ll match that with a million dollars of their own.

In the NME interview, Win Butler sticks up for Bono, recognising him as a fellow rock star with a social conscience: “As much as people slag Bono, I will forever give him credit for engaging with George W Bush.”

Win Butler also reveals that his favourite author is George Orwell – and aspires to emulate that writer’s political intent with the music of Arcade Fire. “The more escapist aspect of what we do,” he says,” whether it’s fiction or non-fiction, is all an attempt to connect with something true.”

That NME cover in full, on sale from Wednesday 28 July. Subscribe here and get NME for £1 a week, or get this week’s digital issue for your iPad, laptop or home computer.