What Happened To Arcade Fire's New Album?
Arcade Fire's Pink Elephant misses the Billboard 200, marking the band's first full-length album not ... More to chart, despite strong pure sales. MIJAS, SPAIN - AUGUST 31: Singer Win Butler from Arcade Fire performs at Cala Mijas Fest on August 31, 2023 in Mijas, Spain. (Photo by Pablo Gallardo/Redferns)
A little over a decade ago, Arcade Fire made history at the Grammys by winning Album of the Year for The Suburbs. The Canadian rock band became one of the few independent acts to come out on top in what is often considered the most prestigious category during music's biggest night. The rockers had already found great commercial success and critical acclaim and were on top of the world for a while.
Now, with a new album out, it's clear that public interest in the United States has waned significantly, and that the former Grammy champions are now struggling even to reach the charts.
Pink Elephant arrives on a number of music rankings in the U.S. this frame. While it performs fairly well on a handful of tallies, it is notably absent from one major ranking: the Billboard 200. The 200-spot ranking of the most consumed full-lengths and EPs in America does not include Pink Elephant, which is quite shocking, as Arcade Fire has never before seen one of its proper full-lengths fail to reach the tally.
Previously, the group's debut effort, Funeral, stood as its lowest-charting success, and even that managed to rise to No. 123 more than 20 years ago. Since then, every one of Arcade Fire's projects has cracked the top 10 on the Billboard 200. Three of them — The Suburbs, Reflektor, and Everything Now — hit No. 1.
It's only been three years since Arcade Fire last debuted a full-length on the Billboard 200. The simply-named We arrived in May 2022 and peaked at No. 6. Now, just a relatively short time later, Pink Elephant doesn't even mark a new low, as it can't reach the Billboard 200 at all.
Pink Elephant does crack the top 10 on one other Billboard list this frame. It starts at No. 10 on the Top Album Sales chart with a little less than 6,200 pure purchases, according to Luminate. That sum, entirely in pure purchases, is enough to make it one of the bestselling releases in the country — but not quite large enough to bring it to the Billboard 200.
The lowest-ranking title on that tally, Future's DS2, shifted 8,600 equivalent units in the past tracking frame. It seems that streaming activity didn't make much of an impact on Pink Elephant's performance.
Pink Elephant also manages to appear on two other Billboard rankings after its first full tracking frame finished. It opens at No. 12 on the Vinyl Albums list, and it barely manages to reach the Top Rock & Alternative Albums chart, coming in at No. 49 on that 50-spot ranking.
In mid-2022, months after the release of We, frontman and lead singer Win Butler was accused of sexual misconduct by several women in articles published by Pitchfork. While the musician denied any wrongdoing – and has been supported by his wife Régine Chassagne (also a member of Arcade Fire) – the claims seem to have hurt the band's commercial appeal.
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