“We Exist” by Arcade Fire

song info

    “We Exist” by Arcade Fire (official video) is an alternative rock song.

link to the static song information page for this song:
http://www.thissideofsanity.com/music/songs/we/weexist.php

    Summary quotation from Wikipedia:

    “We Exist” is a song by Canadian alternative rock band Arcade Fire from their fourth studio album, Reflektor (2013). It will be released digitally as the third single from the album on 26 May 2014 via Sonovox. The music video for the song, starring Andrew Garfield, was released on 16 May 2014.

Composition
    “We Exist” conveys a message of self-empowerment and equality. The song was described by Arcade Fire lead singer Win Butler as “about a gay kid talking to his dad” and coming out to his straight father. Introducing the song onstage, Butler also said that “the right to marry anyone you want is a human rights issue.”

Music video
    A music video to promote the song was released on 16 May 2014. It was directed by David Wilson and stars Hollywood actor Andrew Garfield (The Amazing Spider-Man) in the role of a drag queen. Scenes for the video were shot during an Arcade Fire concert at 2014 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, which was headlined by the band. The video starts with Garfield’s character shaving his head and getting dressed. He then goes to a small-town local bar where he is harassed by some bar patrons. In a later scene, he dances in a trippy pseudo-hallucination, accompanied by a group of male dancers in matching plaid half-shirts and jean shorts. In the final moments of the video, Garfield walks through a magical portal to Arcade Fire’s Coachella concert, where he dances on stage.
    Rolling Stone magazine’s Ryan Reed commented that the video is “a perfect match for Win Butler’s lyrics and the track’s throbbing synth-rock arrangement.” Melissa Locker of Time magazine wrote that it is “a tense, riveting video that adds even greater depth to the already meaningful song.” MTV’s Gil Kaufman wrote that “in the just-released full video for Arcade Fire’s LGBT acceptance anthem ‘We Exist,’ Garfield dresses up like you’ve never seen him before. An early teaser suggested that the actor would do drag for the six-plus minute mini-movie, but the full version of the clip tells a much deeper, more emotionally wrenching story.” He also praised Andrew Garfield’s dancing skills in the Flashdance-inspired dream sequence.

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Proverb:

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