James Murphy is definitely involved with Arcade Fire’s new album in some very vague capacity

Arcade Fire’s publicity wheels are in serious motion this week. On Monday, it was discovered that the band had performed a very small, very secret show in Montreal under the pseudonym Les Identiks, during which it previewed material from its upcoming album. And today, the band’s manager Scott Rodger confirmed, after several years’ worth of intermittent will-they-or-won’t-they rumors, that the band is definitely collaborating with James Murphy on “two or three songs” for the album.

Speculation about the artists working together began in earnest after a 2010 interview with BBC Music 6, in which Murphy said that he would like to work with the group after retiring LCD Soundsystem. But bad timing and other projects conspired to keep them from making sweet, sweet music together until this most recent endeavor.

What exactly Murphy’s role on those songs will be is still unclear, since—in his words—Arcade Fire largely “produce themselves.” Of course, that doesn’t rule out the possibility that he may just be on hand to “produce” positive vibes, or to hang out and make everyone in his immediate proximity marginally cooler. [via Consequence Of Sound]