Perhaps “The Sprawl II: Mountains Beyond Mountains,” the most cohesive and definitive moment on Arcade Fire’s “The Suburbs,” was a message to the world that the Canadian baroque pop act has even more to offer than the impressive array of aural styles and flavors woven throughout their current triumvirate of LPs. The haunting giant heads featured briefly in the danceable song’s video make a grand reappearance (minus, fortunately, the cream AKG 240s—why does everyone flip over those headphones, anyway?) in the video for “Reflektor,” the first single from AF’s highly anticipated forthcoming album by the same name.

So, some giant paper-mâché heads and a dance-borderline-disco beat. Cool, eh? Very. The band continues this vibe throughout the four additional tracks they debuted during the final weekend of September on SNL and a Roman Coppola-directed 30-minute concert special after the show, which featured cameos from Zach Galifianakis, Ben Stiller, Michael Cera, and Bono, among others.  

The influence of James Murphy, producer of the new album and former frontman of the quintessential and now-defunct indietronica/ironic dance-punk group LCD Soundsystem, is thick throughout these tracks. What can we expect for the full double LP set to be released on October 28 here in the states?

First of all, expect to have more of these gyration-producing grooves spanning the entirety of the release. Will there be any bangers as deeply cut with the dance as, say, Murphy’s magnum opus, “Dance Yrself Clean”? One can only hope.

So, a new Arcade Fire album with more potential to turn on kandi kids and other standard detractors from the band is good. However, an artist’s ability to create a new, more diverse and, arguably, more palatable sound without alienating long-term fans is a true art.

If the immediate success of the handful of already-released tracks, paired with 2013’s other releases, are any metric for forecasting Reflektor’s success in the few remaining anticipatory weeks until the album drops, Arcade Fire has a good shot at pulling off the sonic evolution.

Take Queens of the Stone Age’s “Like Clockwork,” released earlier this year, for example. Not only did the album represent a dramatic (literally) departure from previous releases for the band, but also it was more critically acclaimed than virtually any other QOTSA album released prior.

Additionally, the success and critical acclaim of Daft Punk’s “Random Access Memories,” Vampire Weekend’s “Modern Vampires of the City,” The Knife’s aptly named “Shaking the Habitual and Deerhunter’s Monomania” prove the trend: this is the year for big stylistic changes for bands, and people are going to like the new sound.

Without even looking at the success of individual tracks (except for Death Grips’ “Birds,” which is basically the future of hip-hop in a manic four minutes and 39 seconds,) this year marks a watershed moment for indie music.

Arcade Fire basically has this one in the bag. While I compulsorily shudder at the thought of Pitchfork as a culture-making entity, the giant’s influence is undeniable. If past Pitchfork praise of AF (BNM for all 3 of the band’s previous LPs and Best New Track for “Reflektor” last month) is any indicator of how Reflektor will do, the band is about to drop a great, dare I say, seminal (it is way too early for that) album.

Reflektor is one of my most anticipated releases of the year, which speaks volumes considering the dozens of monumental albums of 2013 so far. Deep down, we are all Arcade Fire. Their music is visceral. It is universal. It is the human experience captured in urgent, oft-melancholic strings and pads and projected across the landscape of consciousness realized through lyrics that, perhaps more than any other band since Neutral Milk Hotel, evoke an unshakable sense of nostalgia. And now we wait.