New Music: Will Butler (Arcade Fire) – Anna

Californian artist Will Butler, better known as the composer for Arcade Fire, is forging himself a solo career, late last year announcing a debut solo album is on the cards, Policy. Will, whose been in Arcade Fire for ten years, is brother to the band’s lead singer, Win Butler. While Win writes a fair amount of tracks for the group, Will led the charge for the band’s recent sountrack to Spike Jonze’s Her, in conjuction with Owen Pallet. Policy was recorded in Jimi Hendrix's old living room at Electric Lady Studios in New York,  and Butler has announced that "Policy is American music—in the tradition of the Violent Femmes, the Breeders, the Modern Lovers, Bob Dylan, Smokey Robinson, the Magnetic Fields, Ghostface Killah. And John Lennon (which counts)."

At a gig in Brookyln in November last year, Will Butler previewed his solo material, playing guitars and synth, with back up singers in tow. He performed a ten-song set of bright, garage pop, that had punters eagerly anticipating the release of recordings. Today, Butler delivers a lead single from the album, Anna. The track’s a synth-driven, crisp, New Wave-y electro-rocky number, with an awesome piano and brass climax, and a bunch of brusque, deep vocal grabs from Butler. He’s also given us a video clip to accompany. The video features Butler clad in a suit and sneakers, pulling awkward but cute dance moves in a dark field, interacting with scratchy animations of the song’s lyrics and symbols. It’s cool, in an quirky-indie-rom-com movie kind of way. Policy is due out March 10 via Merge. Watch below:

 Watch a track from Butler's live show in Brooklyn, Baby’s All Right, below:

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