Arcade Fire hint at New Order remix of ‘WE’ track

Arcade Fire have hinted at a forthcoming collaboration with New Order.

The Canadian band appeared on Radio X last night (May 2) to talk about their sixth album ‘WE’, which arrives this Friday (May 6) via Columbia Records.

Asked about the inspiration behind ‘Age Of Anxiety II (Rabbit Hole)’ – an unreleased dance track the group have been previewing at recent shows – frontman Win Butler explained: “I mean, New Order is a pretty seminal influence to us. And I remember… like, there’s a Donna Summer song that they completely [used] for ‘Blue Monday’; there’s these two disco songs that are ‘Blue Monday’.”

Butler continued: “I first heard it and I was like, ‘Hey, that’s really got that thing’. But then you hear ‘Blue Monday’ and you’re like, ‘[It’s] still really good’.

“We might actually do something with New Order with that song [‘…Rabbit Hole’].”

Pressed on whether Arcade Fire had spoken to the legendary Manchester band about teaming up, Butler coyly replied: “I dunno, have we?”

In a separate interview with The Guardian, it’s noted that the frontman was listening to “a top-secret remix of ‘Age Of Anxiety II (Rabbit Hole)'”.

Elsewhere in the Radio X chat, Butler said that he’s “open” to a future collaboration with U2 after previously covering Joy Division’s ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ with them, “not having practised it or played it”.

Arcade Fire have already previewed the Nigel Godrich-produced ‘WE’ with the singles ‘The Lightning I, II’ and ‘Unconditional I (Lookout Kid)’.

Last Friday (April 29) saw the band play their first UK show in four years at the newly opened KOKO in Camden, London. At the end of the intimate gig, Arcade Fire debuted a new ‘WE’ song called ‘End Of The Empire I-IV’.

In a review of the performance, Rolling Stone UK described the track as “a sprawling, nine-minute state-of-the-nation epic”.

Arcade Fire also played a surprise set at the first weekend of Coachella 2022 last month.