Show caption Arcade Fire. Photograph: PR handout Pass notes Did Arcade Fire just fake news themselves with a spoof gig dress code? The band have launched their upcoming album with a satirical campaign – but they’re having trouble convincing fans their demands were a joke Wed 26 Jul 2017 09.40 EDT Share on Facebook

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Name: Arcade Fire.

Age: 16.

Appearance: Hip and trendy.

Hip and trendy? What are you, my grandmother? No, but it might be how Arcade Fire want you to dress.

What? Their new album, Everything Now, is released this week. But last month a Facebook page for a company called Everything Now Corp, ostensibly a “finance company” that had entered into a “360 deal” to control the marketing and promotion of Everything Now, was launched. They sent an email to concertgoers stating: “Our dress code is HIP & TRENDY.”

And what does “hip and trendy” actually entail? They were kind enough to add what it doesn’t – shorts, large logos, flip-flops, tank tops, crop tops, baseball hats, solid white or red clothing – before mentioning that: “We reserve the right to deny entry to anyone dressed inappropriately.”

No solid white clothing? I know. Sadly this rules out all boybands from 15 years ago and many bakers.

Still, a new Arcade Fire album! Is it good? OK, this is where it gets even trickier. The album has been described in a preview as “on the sweeter, more introspective side, though perhaps with a dark edge” and “dancey”.

What’s tricky about that? The band wrote it.

Arcade Fire wrote their own preview of their own album? Sort of. They created a parody website called Stereoyum, mocking Stereogum’s advance reviews. It seems to be an attempt to ambush the album’s real reviews ahead of time.

That sounds weirdly defensive. It does, doesn’t it?

But why? Well, the album is called Everything Now, and it supposedly examines knee-jerk internet culture, where early opinions count for more than considered ones and prevalence counts for all. In addition to Stereoyum, the band also released a line of ephemeral, instantly gratifying products including sugar cereal and fidget spinners. Perhaps the review is an intellectual comment on that?

Oh right! So asking people to dress in a certain manner is also a spoofy comment on unobtainably artificial Instagram-era perfection? Probably, although the band did genuinely request that attendees of their 2014 arena tour wore costumes or formal attire.

I’m so confused. To be fair, they did deny the latest dress code request in a tweet reading: “Wear whatever you want to any show.” But that’s probably less a critique of online culture and more them realising that they looked like massive prannies.

Do say: “Every song that I’ve ever heard / Is playing at the same time, it’s absurd / And it reminds me, we’ve got everything now.”