Will Butler + Sister Squares

Before Will Butler left Arcade Fire in late 2021 after spending just about 20 years as part of the band, hed already released a few solo albums that reignited the spark of Arcade Fires early excitement and verve. Though Will Butler + Sister Squares is the first new music that Butler has made since his departure from his well-loved band, and Sister Squares is a presented here as newly minted group, the album is a natural progression from Butlers work on 2015s Policy and 2020s Generations, leaning deeper into collaboration with contributors to those albums. Sister Squares is made up of drummer Miles Francis and multi-instrumentalists Sara Dobbs, Jenny Shore, and Julie Shore (Julie being Jennys sister and Butlers wife). Though all of the players have worked together before now, Will Butler + Sister Squares has more of a collective feel, with Francis acting as producer, and more of an emphasis being placed on group vocal harmonies and arrangements that sound like a pulsating organism more than a frontperson and their dutiful backing band. A vibrant patchwork of vocal samples, electro-acoustic rhythms, and moody overlapping synths borrowed from Wish-era Cure show up on the albums first full song, "Stop Talking," and this tune also introduces the groups tendency to have Butlers lead vocals supported by layers of backup singing. This continues on yearning songs like "Willows" and the subdued acoustic guitar-led "Old Year." Butler calls upon some familiar reference points on standout cuts like "Long Grass," combining the plainly stated pop wonderment of the Talking Heads with Lets Dance-era Bowie and pushing the funkier elements of these influences to the forefront on "Arrow of Time." Will Butler + Sister Squares is quietly more experimental than Butlers previous solo outings, burying unexpected sounds within straightforward-seeming songs. This can take the form of deeply distorted drum machine sounds and sliced-up vocal tracks on the atmospheric "Hee Loop," warbly, pitch-shifted spoken word on the nervous skittering of "I Am Standing in a Room," and ghostly ambient piano sounds on closing track "The Window." Though Butler and company dont stray too far from the formula hes been honing both solo and with his previous band, Will Butler + Sister Squares is more adventurous and surprising than most of what preceded it, taking new risks without losing the invigorated pop spirit thats come to define Butlers songwriting. ~ Fred Thomas