Watch Arcade Fire Cover Harry Styles’ “As It Was” & Make It Sound Like An Arcade Fire Song
Last week, Arcade Fire completed their long-awaited return, releasing the new album WE. That means that the band is out now in the world, doing what they can to promote the LP. For their BBC Radio 6 Music session at Maida Vale, the band went into full-pander mode and covered “As It Was,” the recent chart-topper from their fellow Coachella headliner Harry Styles. Arcade Fire really are reapplying for the job!
“As It Was” is a perfectly decent little song, and Arcade Fire made it sound like an Arcade Fire track. As it turns out, “As It Was” didn’t even require that much tweaking. Arcade Fire played for the BBC’s cameras, which filmed them in crisp black-and-white for some reason. Win Butler sadly did not wear a sparkly pantsuit for the occasion, but he did change the lyric about “Harry” to one about “Win.” Below, watch Arcade Fire’s version of “As It Was” and the video for the Harry Styles original.
In their Radio 6 performance, Arcade Fire also did live-in-studio version of their own new songs “The Lightning I, II” and “Age Of Anxiety II (Rabbit Hole).” You can watch those performances below.
WE is out now on Columbia. Harry Styles’ new album Harry’s House is out 5/20, also on Columbia. Synergy!