Arcade Fire doesn’t make it onto the pages of this site very often (read: never), but when you dedicate your latest video to a grieving Latino family, you get a mention or two. “Afterlife” is the second single off Reflektor—the band’s post-Grammy, post-world-takeover album—and its video, directed by Emily Kai Bok, takes a surreal look at a family who’s lost their matriarch. Both death and deportation are possibilities in this story, as we see how the separation has affected her husband and their first-generation sons. We move through each male character, entrenched in their dreams and nighttime actions, as they search for a maternal presence. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t get choked up when the woman is finally revealed and the couple shares a strong embrace. Damn you, Arcade Fire.
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