October 30, 2014: Arcade Fire share the 21-minute horror film Festi. It features Reflektor co-producer James Murphy, Peter Gabriel, the National, Fleet Foxes, and more. With a rolodex like this, what must be truly scary for the band is accidentally inviting all their email contacts on LinkedIn.

February 16, 2015: Win Butler, as DJ Windows 98, mashes up Kanye West’s “Jesus Walks” and Beck’s “Loser.” At the Grammys, Kanye West had just said Beck’s Album of the Year trophy for Morning Phase should have gone to Beyoncé. Possible takeaways: Arcade Fire wouldn’t mind winning Album of the Year again; also, music is music, man.

March 10, 2015: Will Butler releases his debut solo album, Policy. “Arcade Fire albums come out every three years,” Butler says at the time. “So once the tour ends, you usually get a year of life, and then the next album starts.”

May 19, 2015: Will Butler releases a digital deluxe edition of Policy. It includes the songs he wrote inspired by a news story each day for a week. So if you were looking for Arcade Fire to tackle the Greek debt crisis on their next album, um, well, it’s already been done.

July 10, 2015: Images emerge of Win Butler, Chassagne, Skrillex, and Diplo together in a studio. Butler tweets: “just showing a couple of friends our studio. Not a session.” But still: Would it be *so *crazy to go from Reflektor disco to tinges of post-EDM house?

September 22, 2015: Reflektor follow-up chatter gets into gear properly. Will Butler says, “We’re all itching to play music together and start recording things. We’re basically in the demo-and-play-together phase, and historically that’s led to realizing that, surprisingly, we’re 30 percent into a record, so we’ll see if that happens.” He adds: “It’s a bit different this time because everyone’s older and fatter and lazier, so it might take longer, but we’re playing music together.”

September 23, 2015: Arcade Fire’s The Reflektor Tapes film comes to theaters. It’s directed by Kahlil Joseph, who’d previously worked with Flying Lotus and Kendrick Lamar. At a screening before the official release, Butler and Chassagne lead an impromptu dance party.

December 24, 2015: Will Butler shares a Christmas song, “City on a Hill.” Now you, too, can have a very Arcade Fire-y holiday season.