The new video that Spike Jonze directed for Arcade Fire‘s song “The Suburbs” begins, fittingly enough, with teenagers horsing around in an anonymous suburb. They ride bikes! They send their bikes crashing into things for fun! Then things take an unsettling turn. Why are those kids shooting some sort of weapons at trucks? What’s with all the military troops hanging around?
You’ll have to watch the clip for yourself to see where it all ends up, but let’s just say Arcade Fire seem interested in exposing the darkness and violence underneath those cheery suburban appearances. Take a look at the video after the jump and let us know what you think.
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More from EW.com:
EW’s review of The Suburbs
Arcade Fire’s revolutionary “We Used to Wait” video: Director Chris Milk explains how it was created
Love this song, one of my favorites from Arcade Fire.
Love them. Love this song. Video was intense, but amazing.
Pointless.
Wow. Amazing. The most well made, provocative video I’ve seen since M.I.A.’s “Born Free”.
Nothing unique here. The author is a paid patsy.
Love the band, like the song, but unimpressed with the video…..
totally don’t get the ending
I didn’t quite get the ending either, although watching it again I realized the first scene probably occurred after the beatdown scene in the end.
The more chilling thing that came to mind was the fact that the kids in the video and 15 year old American kids who watch it would have grown up in a world have grown up in a world where our nation has never not been in active combat.
And, in a country where airports have scanners that see right through you, where the many people who are against it are saying we should profile based on race or ethnicity instead, a video with paramilitary soldiers wandering around and dragging people through idyllic American streets can’t just be a paranoid fantasy to these kids, like it would have been to kids 20 years ago.
The video is about kids growing up, change and a loss of innocence. The world they use to observe as kids became the world they live in as they get older. The kid who got beat up must have rattled on hid friend which cost him many friendships and his girlfriend. It becomes more evident after seeing it a couple times.
This video is one that needs to be watched several times to fully understand. it’s amazing, i really want to watch the film on this.
This is honestly one of the best pro voieds I’ve seen I’ve never learnt so much tricks in one video it would be awsome if you could make more voieds like this