Listen to Arcade Fire’s hopeful new single “Unconditional I (Lookout Kid)”

Arcade Fire have released “Unconditional I (Lookout Kid)”, the latest single to be taken from their forthcoming album WE.

• ORDER NOW: Miles Davis is on the cover in the latest issue of Uncut
• READ MORE: Arcade Fire – Everything Now review

The track was initially teased by the band on April 12, when frontman Win Butler posted a video on Instagram of a vinyl version of the album playing. “Next single is,” he is heard saying before a slow strumming song kicks off with the lyrics “Lookout kid trust your heart / you don’t have to play the part.”

“Unconditional I (Lookout Kid)” has now been shared by the band on their social media, with a caption on Instagram reading: “There’s nothing saccharine about unconditional love in a world that is coming apart at the seams. WE need each other, in all of our imperfection.

“‘Lookout Kid’ is a reminder, a lullaby for the end times, sung to my son, but for everyone… Trust your heart, trust your mind, trust your body, trust your soul. Shit is going to get worse before it gets better, but it always gets better, and no one’s perfect.”

The track is the follow-up to “The Lightning I, II”, which arrived in March. It’s a hopeful and optimistic ode to future generations in the face of uncertainties facing the world –listen below.

Speaking to Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, Win Butler explained how he was singing to his son in the future on the track. “So I was really just sort of thinking about my son and the world that he’s facing and how like, I was a very, very, very depressed kid, particularly in high school,” he said.

“I was trying to imagine the way that I’m wired just chemically and the shit that I’ve dealt with in my life, having to deal with that now in this era of like … and not to mention now, but like 10 years from now, whenever the fuck he’s going to be dealing with it. And it was just like, ‘Man, he’s going to need to have the thick skin and to just really be able to take a hit and have some just fortitude.'”

The band previewed the new single earlier this month during a surprise performance at the first weekend of Coachella 2022. Butler had to restart the song at the festival after being overcome with emotion.

The group make their return to the UK this Friday (April 29) to play an intimate concert at London’s KOKO to mark the long-awaited reopening of the venue. Tickets are now sold out.