By ‘Creature Comfort’ is the latest single from Montreal-based band Arcade Fire: a follow up to their single release ‘Everything Now’ from their fifth album of the same name to be released later this year.
The single ‘Everything Now’ was firmly in the territory of 70s disco, heavily channelling ABBA with a Dancing Queen riff. ‘Creature Comfort’ places itself in a similar feel, leaning more towards an anti-suicide PSA than a traditional disco anthem. Along the lines of what we’ve heard from Arcade Fire before, ‘Creature Comfort’ slides into the category of songs you can’t decide whether to dance to, or cry along to.
‘Creature Comfort’ was marketed via the band’s mock corporation ‘Everything Now Corp.’ with a mock commercial for ‘Creature Comfort Cereal’. The product slogan ’Creature Comfort – Make it Painless!’ is repeated in the single’s pre-chorus as a chant that becomes increasingly more distressing.
Thematically, the song reflects on a ‘make it or die’ mentality, and is ironically self-reflexive in lyrics such as ‘She told me she came so close/filled up the bathtub and put on our first record’ as the band’s first album ‘Funeral’ supposedly saves a fan from taking her own life. The releases ahead of the fifth album are, so far, a good reflection of the direction in which Arcade Fire are headed: a meta, ironic, social commentary that sounds like a mix of their past material relevant to the times.
‘Everything Now’ is set to be released this year, and the band will complete a world tour towards the end of the year.
