Rococo

Album: The Suburbs (2010)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This is a track from The Suburbs, the third album by Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire. In this song, the band mocks empty-headed feral, modern kids: "They will eat right out of your hand/Using great big words that they don't understand."
  • Rococo is a style of architecture, decoration and furniture making, which prevailed in King Louis XV's reign in France. It developed as Baroque artists gave up their symmetry and became increasingly more ornate, florid, and playful. So why are the kids in this song singing "Rococo"? Multi-instrumentalist Regine Chassagne explained to The NME July 31, 2010: "Win (Butler, vocals) was strumming the chords on the guitar and I was on the couch and said, 'Hey, those chords sound like baroque music, so the words rococo comes from baroque."
  • Chassagne said: "We recorded it at the church with everyone together in one room, and it spontaneously grew from a small song into something big. At one point the guitars sounded like Nirvana!"
  • This was among the most challenging tracks to record on Suburbs. Inspired by Chassagne's Haitian heritage and the island's brutal French colonial history, it sees feedbacking guitars vying with harpsichord and scraping violins. She told Q magazine with a laugh: "I asked for the strings to sound like mosquitoes attacking Frenchmen wearing fancy clothes in the jungle."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Rickie Lee Jones

Rickie Lee JonesSongwriter Interviews

Rickie Lee Jones on songwriting, social media, and how she's handling Trump.

Cheerleaders In Music Videos

Cheerleaders In Music VideosSong Writing

It started with a bouncy MTV classic. Nirvana and MCR made them scary, then Gwen, Avril and Madonna put on the pom poms.

Experience Nirvana with Sub Pop Founder Bruce Pavitt

Experience Nirvana with Sub Pop Founder Bruce PavittSong Writing

The man who ran Nirvana's first label gets beyond the sensationalism (drugs, Courtney) to discuss their musical and cultural triumphs in the years before Nevermind.

Sarah Brightman

Sarah BrightmanSongwriter Interviews

One of the most popular classical vocalists in the land is lining up a trip to space, which is the inspiration for many of her songs.

Mac Powell of Third Day

Mac Powell of Third DaySongwriter Interviews

The Third Day frontman talks about some of the classic songs he wrote with the band, and what changed for his solo country album.

Director Mark Pellington ("Jeremy," "Best Of You")

Director Mark Pellington ("Jeremy," "Best Of You")Song Writing

Director Mark Pellington on Pearl Jam's "Jeremy," and music videos he made for U2, Jon Bon Jovi and Imagine Dragons.