Arcade Fire’s 2004 debut album Funeral includes the song “Wake Up.” The Canadian indie rock band released the album through Merge Records on September 14, 2004, after recording much of it at Hotel2Tango in Montreal.
Funeral’s title reflects the deaths of several relatives of band members during the album’s creation. That atmosphere shaped its themes of grief, change, mortality, and lost childhood, but the music is not simply mournful: songs such as “Wake Up” turn those themes into expansive, communal anthems built around choral vocals and orchestral textures.
“Wake Up” was the fifth and final single from Funeral, released as a one-sided seven-inch record in November 2005. Its dramatic arrangement helped make it one of Arcade Fire’s signature songs. A re-recorded version later appeared in the trailer for the 2009 film Where the Wild Things Are, and the NFL licensed the recording for Super Bowl advertising in 2010, with proceeds directed to Partners In Health.
The main mix-up is confusing Funeral with Arcade Fire’s self-titled 2003 EP. The EP came first, but Funeral was the band’s debut full-length studio album.