Hear Arcade Fire’s Grand Cover of John Lennon’s ‘Mind Games’
Arcade Fire released an ornate studio version of John Lennon‘s 1973 song “Mind Games” – a song they’ve covered onstage during their latest tour – as part of Spotify’s Singles series.
Like the former Beatle’s original tune, the revamped “Mind Games” blends bitterness (“Keep on playing those mind games together/ Faith in the future, out of the now”) and optimism (“Love is a flower/ You got to let it grow”). But Arcade Fire amplify the underlying hope, replicating Ken Ascher’s original mellotron with swelling live strings.
Arcade Fire debuted their Lennon revamp during an intimate festival after show last month at Chicago’s Metro. Unlike the more conventional studio version, the live cut segued into the outro of Radiohead’s “Karma Police” and a few lines from David Bowie’s “Oh! You Pretty Things” before morphing back into “Mind Games” and reprising Arcade Fire’s “Wake Up.”
Win Butler and company’s recently-issued fifth LP, Everything Now, became their third straight Number One on the Billboard 200, following 2013’s Reflektor and 2010’s The Suburbs. Everything Now is only the second rock album to top the chart this year, following Linkin Park’s One More Light.