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

How The Beatles Crafted Killer Choruses

How The Beatles Crafted Killer ChorusesSong Writing

The author of Help! 100 Songwriting, Recording And Career Tips Used By The Beatles, explains how the group crafted their choruses so effectively.

Lace the Music: How LSD Changed Popular Music

Lace the Music: How LSD Changed Popular MusicSong Writing

Starting in Virginia City, Nevada and rippling out to the Haight-Ashbury, LSD reshaped popular music.

Steely Dan

Steely DanFact or Fiction

Did they really trade their guitarist to The Doobie Brothers? Are they named after something naughty? And what's up with the band name?

Millie Jackson

Millie JacksonSongwriter Interviews

Outrageously gifted and just plain outrageous, Millie is an R&B and Rap innovator.

Harry Wayne Casey of KC and The Sunshine Band

Harry Wayne Casey of KC and The Sunshine BandSongwriter Interviews

Harry Wayne Casey tells the stories behind KC and The Sunshine Band hits like "Get Down Tonight," "That's The Way (I Like It)," and "Give It Up."

Francis Rossi of Status Quo

Francis Rossi of Status QuoSongwriter Interviews

Doubt led to drive for Francis, who still isn't sure why one of Status Quo's biggest hits is so beloved.