Watch: Arcade Fire's Spike Jonze-Directed Video for 'The Suburbs'

Thursday night the "secret film project" that Arcade Fire and director Spike Jonze have been working on for months was revealed to be a video for the title track of the band's latest LP, The Suburbs. It's a startlingly literal vision of the dystopian suburbs depicted in the song's lyrics ("You always seemed so sure/ That one day we'd be fighting in a suburban war").

The clip starts off with idyllic scenes of young friends getting up to teen mischief in the suburbs. But darker imagery — people being arrested, heavily armed soldiers — quickly starts appearing. And when night falls, things get really dark: Martial law is apparently declared and black-masked soldiers move in. Some of the kids are arrested and carted off, and the clip ends with another being beaten savagely in a fast-food joint.

The band's Win Butler spoke with Pitchfork about the clip over the summer, and while he described it as a "science-fiction B-movie companion piece for the record," he didn't hint at its grim and violent nature.

"It was great just hanging out with these 15-year-olds for a week and writing down all the funny things they said," he said. "It was cool to revert to being a 15-year-old for a little while."

Watch: Arcade Fire and Spike Jonze's video for "The Suburbs" [Consequence of Sound]

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Song Stories

“Youth Knows No Pain”

Lykke Li | 2011

“Like on 'Youth Knows No Pain' — we are the ones that should demonstrate, because we can take it,” Likke Li said. “We can pierce ourselves, take Ecstasy, dance all night and still go to work at our McDonald's jobs.” Despite the hedonistic sentiment in the song, the Swedish singer also admitted in hindsight her youth had repercussions. “I remember when I was 18-19 and feeling that I know it all,” Li said. “I always feel that I know it all. But that song is about realizing you don’t, and reflecting, ‘Boy, if I only knew what would follow.’”

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