Yesterday, Arcade Fire stole the afternoon by surprising fans with two music videos for their song "Reflektor."
The song, which features David Bowie, is their first off the forthcoming album by the same name. One video was a standard-form music video, directed by Anton Corbijn and featuring the band members turned into bobbleheads, wearing giant papier-mache recreations of their heads.
Lead singer Win Butler drives the members around in the back of a truck with his wife, Regine Chassagne, riding shotgun.
The other was more of a surprise. Billed as a short film and "virtual projection," the second version was made with a team from Google and filmmaker Vincent Morisset to be fully interactive.
Released on its own website, Arcade Fire allows fans to control the interactive video by tethering their phone, webcam or mouse by using a provided passcode.
The video begins to play, and the webcam comes on. Movements detected by the camera and the connected phone adjust the contours of the screen, adjusting shadow, focus and reflections.
The technology combined with the sentiment of "Reflektor" is the kind of juxtaposition Arcade Fire has become known for, with lyrics telling listeners to get off the Internet.
“We’re so connected, but are we even friends?” Butler sings, criticizing social media's versions of togetherness.
"Reflektor" comes on the heels of other Google/Arcade Fire collaborations, like the video for 2010's "We Used To Wait," which reminisces on the time before instant communication; and 2011's "Sprawl II," which laments the need to run away from urban sprawl.
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