Will Butler is best known for his work with Arcade Fire, but he has made some wonderful work solo as well; His Emma Stone-starring “Anna” video is particularly memorable. That single came from Butler’s second and most recent solo album, 2016’s Friday Night. Today, he announced that he is ready to follow that album up with another solo record: Generations is set for release on September 25 via Merge.
He also shared a video for the album’s lead single, “Surrender.” The jaunty tune is accompanied by a video that doubles as a behind-the-scenes clip and a vlog. After sharing footage of some of the song’s recording sessions, the remainder of the visual goes back and forth between B-roll Butler speaking to the camera (muted and subtitled, with the song playing over his words).
Butler begins, “Jesus Christ what a year. Just watching that pre-quarantine footage completely melts my brain. I can’t comprehend it. I’m in Brooklyn, finishing this video, about four months into some kind of lockdown, and a little over six weeks into the protests over the police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks, and Elijah McClain, and— I don’t know, man.” He goes on to discuss the increasing number of prison inmates in the US and criticisms of this country’s law enforcement systems.
In a press statement, Butler said of the song:
“‘Surrender’ is masquerading as a love song, but it’s more about friendship. About the confusion that comes as people change–didn’t you use to have a different ideal? Didn’t we have the same ideal at some point? Which of us changed? How did the world change? Relationships that we sometimes wish we could let go of, but that are stuck within us forever.
It’s also about trying to break from the first-person view of the world. ‘What can I do? What difference can I make?’ It’s not about some singular effort–you have to give yourself over to another power. Give over to people who have gone before who’ve already built something–you don’t have to build something new! The world doesn’t always need a new idea, it doesn’t always need a new personality. What can you do with whatever power and money you’ve got? Surrender it over to something that’s already made. And then the song ends with an apology–I’m sorry I’ve been talking all night. Cause talking like that, man, not always useful.”
He also said of Generations more broadly, “My first record, Policy, was a book of short stories. Generations is more of a novel–despairing, funny, a little bit epic… A big chunk of this record is asking: What’s my place in American history? What’s my place in America’s present? Both in general–as a participant, as we all are, in the sh*t that’s going down–but, also extremely particularly: me as Will Butler, rich person, white person, Mormon, Yankee, parent, musician of some sort, I guess. What do I do? What can I do? The record asks that question over and over, even if it’s not much for answers.”
Watch the “Surrender” video above” and check out the Generations art and tracklist below.
1. Outta Here”
2. “Bethlehem”
3. “Close My Eyes ”
4. “I Don’t Know What I Don’t Know”
5. “Surrender”
6. “Hide It Away”
7. “Hard Times”
8. “Promised”
9. “Not Gonna Die”
10. “Fine”
Generations is out 9/25 via Merge. Pre-order it here.