Still from the Arcade Fire’s “You Already Know” video.
Photo: Via YouTube.

You already know (pun intended) it’s going to be a good time watching Arcade Fire jamming out together in a seaside room in the video for their latest single, “You Already Know” (embedded below). But the band has added an additional  art-centric twist. The energetic video is shot in washed out tones that evoke an older documentary film; the  camera whirls around a large, brightly colored suite, capturing each musician in turn doing their thing. Before long, when it’s time for lead singer Win Butler to chime in, the camera cuts to an Old Master-style portrait where the mouth of a stern-looking helmeted figure with pink tape over his eyes starts moving. He croons into a microphone placed directly in front of the work “Sometimes I move so fast…” in a voice that is unmistakably that of the band’s beloved frontman.

The next several paintings to take up the role of the lead singer include another distinguished gentleman decked out in what looks like fairly regal 17th-century-ish garb who “performs” the second verse, mouth moving, with his hand raised above a strategically placed acoustic guitar. The next character, again a formal Old Master style portrait of a woman, also with pink tape over her eyes,  takes it from there.

Still from the Arcade Fire’s “You Already Know” video.
Photo: Via YouTube.

At the end of the video, the band’s piano player and chanteuse extraordinaire Regine Chassage (who’s married to Butler), holds up a mirror to show that the videographer is none other than Butler. Those watching carefully will not be completely surprised, as you can see Butler’s reflection in the first painting to appear in the video.

On the cover of their latest album, titled Reflektor, the Montreal-based band also pay homage to sculptor Auguste Rodin with an image of his famous Orpheus and Eurydice, depicting the legendary Greek poet in his attempt to retrieve his wife from the underworld. The band’s creative director Caroline Robert told Juxtapoz magazine that “the band fell in love with Rodin’s sculpture Orphee et Eurydice. Orpheus’s myth inspired them while writing some of their songs.”

Robert said the artwork, which was printed on holographic board, “embodies this idea of passage between life and death.”

Watch the music video for “You Already Know”: