Arcade Fire Returns With A Crackling New Single ‘I Give You Power’ Featuring Mavis Staples

Arcade Fire have officially begun their return. After teasing new music from a new record and letting the crowd participate in it at Voodoo Festival, yesterday the band shared a new single featuring legendary R&B icon Mavis Staples called “I Give You Power.”

On Twitter, Arcade Fire noted the gravity of our current political situation — electing a president who seems to have very little regard for the arts or violence against women, among other issues — and that it’s more important than ever that we take care of each other. The band also noted on Twitter that all proceeds from the song will go to the American Civil Liberties Foundation:

The new song has plenty of familiar elements for Arcade Fire fans, rumbling, distorted bass and thick percussion, the alternate vocals of Win Butler, and this time Mavis Staples, echoes the interplay that Butler and Régine Chassagne often have. But the stakes are higher here, as the song is explicitly about the give and take of power, and how we have more control than we realize over who and what we let have power over us. The crackling, dark undertone helps create a sense of the dissonance many Americans are feeling on Inauguration Day. Listen above.