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Last night the band began taking pre-orders, and confirmed it is a double album with artwork inspired by Greek mythology, above. Today, BBC Radio 1′s Zane Lowe aired an excerpt of his interview with Arcade Fire frontman Win Butler (the full interview will be aired on Wednesday). Butler said they had written 50 or 60 songs, which were then redefined. The songs appearing on the album are longer than past material, including several stretching seven minutes, thus the double album.

“[It] made more sense to stretch it out to two records,” Butler explained, adding, “I never wanted to be in a band that could never play whatever music we wanted to.”

In regards to the band’s mysterious album roll-out, Butler likened it to a “movie trailer” and described it as a “weird art project.” Lowe mentioned the band’s surprise concert in Montreal last night and policy that anyone without a costume or formal attire was not allowed in. Butler explained the band is at a point in their career where they’re able to try different things, and suggested they’d continue things like silly dress codes in the future.

Speaking of last night’s concert, Stereogum reports that the band played nothing but new material, which ranged from disco and dance to “swampy” funk to Born In The U.S.A.-era Springsteen. Also of note: the band’s instrumentation consisted of guitars, drums, and synths/keys, and they were joined two additional percussionists, Owen Pallett, who switched back between violin and keyboard, and longtime member Sarah Neufeld on violin (Neufeld has been noticeably absent from Reflektor promo pictures).

According to CBC, the band arrived to the venue wearing the oversized papier-mâché heads featured in their video for “Reflektor”. Stereogum adds that the band also took the stage wearing the costumes.

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