This is the latest installment in a very sporadic series of posts on Mormonism and music. And by very sporadic, I mean the first such post in nearly seven years. Previous posts include “Of Mormon Fundamentalism and Outlaw Country Music” and “Conveying Joseph Smith: Brandon Flowers, Arthur Kane, and the Mormon Rock Star Image.”

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Win Butler. Screenshot from “Put Your Money on Me” music video.

Arcade Fire is a Canadian indie rock band. Their lead singer, Win Butler, and his younger brother and bandmate, William Butler, were raised by a Latter-day Saint mother in northern California and suburban Houston. Though neither is a practicing Mormon today, the Butlers have had mostly positive things to say about their LDS upbringing. Here’s Win in a 2010 interview:

I had a somewhat religious upbringing. … Not strict, but it was there and I’m kind of thankful for that. If you grow up just watching MTV, that’s its own form of religion and it’s not even based on happiness or communal responsibility. I mean, try to construct a worldview out of that.

When pressed by the interviewer, who suggested that “it sounds … both from his conversation and his recent songs, like he still misses that faith-based sense of community,” Butler continued:

Yes. I guess I do. I’m not practising, I don’t go to church, but what I got from it was a sense of belonging to something bigger. What I really miss is being forced to be in a community with people that aren’t the same as you. Then, you really have to work through the ways that you’re different. I think that’s important and it’s missing in youth culture. I guess some of the songs are a reaction against the tyranny of youth culture, where you only hang around with people who dress like you, think like you and listen to the same music as you. Even though we are seen as the quintessential indie band, I feel very far from that culture a lot of the time.

If those excerpts strike you as unexpectedly thoughtful reflections on childhood, culture, and religious community, it might have something to do with Butler’s education. After enrolling at McGill University in 2000, he not only met his future bandmates (including his now wife, Régine Chassagne) but also graduated with a degree in religious studies.

It was only mildly surprising then to hear Mormon-esque themes crop up on the band’s latest album, Everything Now (released in 2017). One song in particular, “Put Your Money on Me,” which Butler has described as “a love song from the perspective of someone who has been through a lot,” contains what struck me as a clear allusion to a premortal existence and romantic relationships beginning there:

If there was a race
A race for your heart
It started before you were born

This reading received some confirmation this past week in an interview Butler gave on one of my favorite podcasts, Song Exploder, where “musicians take apart their songs and, piece by piece, tell the story of how they were made.” (Seriously, if you like music and are looking for a good, short weekly listen, subscribe now.)

As part of that interview, Butler offered the following reflection on the song’s lyrics:

My mom is Mormon. I grew up in [the] Mormon church, and when you’re in Sunday School, there would be these ideas of what heaven’s like. And it always seemed so strange to me. You know, like, as a kid, you’re trying to picture what that actually was. So I think there’s a little of that in there, too.

Here’s the full verse of the song:

If there was a race
A race for your heart
It started before you were born
Above the chloroform sky
Clouds made of ambien
Sitting on carpets in the basement of heaven
We were born innocent, but it lies today
And baby you can give all the money away
But if there’s a race, a race for your heart
It’s over, before it starts
Singing put your money on me

Premortal existence. Childhood wonderings about the nature of heaven. And a quick denunciation of original sin to wrap it up.

“A little bit of [Mormonism] in there,” indeed.