Arcade Fire recently stopped by BBC Radio’s Maida Vale Studios to deliver a rollicking cover of Harry Styles’ new single, “As It Was.” Watch the performance below.
On their take, the Canadian indie rockers stayed fairly faithful to the song’s original arrangement while imbuing it with frenetic energy as frontman Win Butler name-dropped the former One Directioner in the self-referential lyrics as his wife Régine Chassagne played the piano. “Answer the phone/ ‘Harry, you’re no good alone/ Why are you sitting at home on the floor?/ What kind of pills are you on?,'” he sings before launching into the popular chorus.
During the session, the quintet and their touring band also performed former Song of the Week “The Lightning I, II” and “Age of Anxiety II (Rabbit Hole)” off their newly-released sixth studio album WE. Check out all three performances after the jump.
Arcade Fire’s admiration for Styles’ latest hit may come as a surprise to some, but both acts converged on the California desert at Coachella last month — with the boy bander-turned-solo star headlining night one of the festival with Shania Twain and Butler and co. performing an unannounced set earlier that same day. While Arcade Fire didn’t return to the Mojave Tent for the festival’s second weekend, Styles swapped the country legend out for a guest appearance by pal Lizzo.
Since then, Arcade Fire have officially joined the Saturday Night Live Five-Timers Club thanks to their fifth stint as musical guest opposite host Benedict Cumberbatch on May 7th. Next, they’ll head out on a tour of Europe, the US, and Canada with special guests Feist and Beck. Tickets go on sale tomorrow, May 13th, at 10:00 a.m. local time. Grab them on Ticketmaster here.
Meanwhile, Styles is embarking on his own upcoming tour of North America, as he’ll play multi-date residencies in New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, Austin, and Chicago. You can get tickets for those shows here.
