Open Your Heart or Die Trying
| Open Your Heart or Die Trying | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
.jpg) Original cover art | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | April 18, 2026 | |||
| Genres | Ambient, Drone | |||
| Length | 36:04 | |||
| Producers |
| |||
| Arcade Fire chronology | ||||
| ||||
Open Your Heart or Die Trying is an ambient studio album by Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire, released on April 18, 2026.[1] The album is a companion piece to the band's 2025 release Pink Elephant, reinterpreting the tracks as experimental ambient music.
The album was first released as an exclusive for Record Store Day,[2] and followed with a digital release on May 1, 2026.[3]
Background
On May 9 2025, Arcade Fire released Pink Elephant, their first album since 2022, following a period of public scrutiny and misconduct allegations against Butler.[4] The album was met with mixed reviews and failed to chart on the Billboard 200 in the United States, becoming the band's first album to do so.[5][6] In September 2025, Butler and Chassagne separated after more than 20 years of marriage.[7] Open your Heart or Die Trying was released several months later in April 2026.
Open your Heart or Die Trying is considered a companion album to Pink Elephant, released during a period of Arcade Fire that is regarded as "complicated" and creatively divisive.[8][9] It is a "cinematic" ambient reinterpretation of Pink Elephant.[8][2] The Facebook account for Arcade Fire described the release as a "sonic landscape, a score to a film that hasn’t been made yet".[10]
Track listing
All tracks are written by Win Butler and Régine Chassagne.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Open Your Heart or Die Trying (Director's Cut)" | 8:41 |
| 2. | "Pink Elephant's Dream" | 5:28 |
| 3. | "Season of Change" | 2:58 |
| 4. | "Trust Fall" | 2:51 |
| 5. | "The Machine is Broken" | 3:20 |
| 6. | "Mountains are Moving" | 1:59 |
| 7. | "Breaking into Heaven" | 4:21 |
| 8. | "Quit Your Job Meditation" | 6:26 |
| Total length: | 36:04 | |
References
- ↑ Trendell, Andrew (February 4, 2026). "Record Store Day 2026: check out the full list of releases here". NME. Retrieved May 17, 2026.
- 1 2 Hudson, Alex (April 18, 2026). "The 10 Best (and 5 Worst) Releases of Record Store Day 2026". Exclaim!. Archived from the original on May 17, 2026. Retrieved May 17, 2026.
- ↑ Open Your Heart or Die Trying by Arcade Fire on Apple Music, May 1, 2026, retrieved May 17, 2026
- ↑ Hogan, Marc (August 27, 2022). "Arcade Fire's Win Butler Accused of Sexual Misconduct by Multiple Women; Frontman Responds". Pitchfork. Retrieved May 11, 2025.
- ↑ "Pink Elephant". Metacritic. Retrieved May 17, 2026.
- ↑ McIntyre, Hugh. "What Happened To Arcade Fire's New Album?". Forbes. Retrieved May 22, 2025.
- ↑ Strauss, Matthew (October 30, 2025). "Arcade Fire's Win Butler and Régine Chassagne Announce Separation". Pitchfork. Retrieved October 31, 2025.
- 1 2 "Arcade Fire baffles with "Open Your Heart or Die Trying"". LoffMusic. May 9, 2026. Retrieved May 17, 2026.
- ↑ Mapes, Jill (May 24, 2025). "The Arcade Fire Problem". Hearing Things. Retrieved May 17, 2026.
- ↑ "Open Your Heart or Die Trying - an ambient release that imagines Pink Elephant". Facebook. Arcade Fire. February 5, 2026. Archived from the original on May 19, 2026. Retrieved May 19, 2026.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: others (link)