In contrast with the sternness that his brother radiates onstage, Will is a bit of a goofball, known for whipping his hair about and jumping ecstatically between instruments. This isn’t exactly a surprising look from Butler. He’s just made, with a minimum of fuss, an album of songs - Policy was recorded in a week, mostly by Butler, and it’s imbued with what he calls “dumb humor.” Butler doesn’t address the lapses in human connection inherent to the digital era, the oppressiveness of the suburbs, the hypocrisy of organized religion. Policy is blessedly free of the big concepts that have become integral to Arcade Fire records.

(The most quoted line, from the amiably loopy “What I Want”: “If you come and take my hand/ I will buy you a pony/We can cook it for supper/I know a great recipe for pony macaroni.”)Ĭlocking in at just eight tracks that zip in and out in just over a half-hour, Policy is a welcome rejoinder to the last Arcade Fire LP, 2013’s Reflektor, the group’s most ambitious ( and in my opinion bloated) album. It’s all over the map - there’s tossed-off punk, cool synth-pop, stately piano balladry, and scores of goofy-ass lyrics. But with his debut solo LP, Policy, Arcade Fire’s excitable sidekick has made what he calls a tribute to American music. Will Butler has lived in Montreal for so long - 9.75 years, by his exact estimation - that it’s often forgotten than he and his brother Win originally hail from Texas.

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