With deep overarching themes and new Haitian sounds, the indie band’s new album shows other hipster bands how it’s done.

To fans of indie music: “Reflektor” is not your average free-loving, pretentious hipster album.

This fourth studio album from the Canadian indie band Arcade Fire has graduated from the usual ho-hum energy circle chanting that plagues their earlier work (e.g. “Wake Up” from their debut album “Funeral”). The album delves into deeper themes and builds a richly textured sound off the shoulders of the multi-instrumental band and the carnival rara Haitian music, which mostly consists of African percussions.

Lead vocalist Win Butler and wife and fellow band member Régine Chassagne’s recent trip to Haiti influenced the album. In the midst of an entirely different culture, Butler claims to have gained a more worldly perspective of music. And indeed, the band has woven the rara style well into the original fabrics of their own musical style.

For example, the titular song “Reflektor,” which criticizes social media for constrainment, is a fusion of Haitian drums, western electric synths, piano and saxophone. The lack of meaningful lyrics is excusable because the echoed effect of Butler and Chassagne whispering “It’s just a Reflektor” puts more emphasis on the theme in haunting melody.

Arcade Fire uses the rara style effectively in “Flashbulb Eyes” as well. A song that suggests the advent of smartphones has created a selfie culture that is detrimental to humanity, “Flashbulb Eyes” plays to an uplifting reggae beat filled with fast-paced guitar riffs and chipper xylophones.

A key trait of the album is the unique profundity of each track. Songs like “It’s Never Over (Hey Orpheus),” “Awful Sound (Oh Eurydice)” and “Afterlife” are based on a Greek myth about two lovers, and deal with the complexities of love and death. Meanwhile, “Porno” tackles inequality within romantic relationships (“Little boys with their porno/Oh, I know how they hurt you so”) and “Here Comes the Night Time” looks into the restrictions of religion and the freedom of music.

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Although deep insight and strange tunes are usually marks of indie songs, sometimes they can get a bit too… indie.

“Normal Person” starts out with a “normal” rock and roll beat but after a few verses, the song suddenly speeds up and crashes into a chaotic mess involving punk harmonies, Butler’s vocals, guitar riffing, and percussion. Butler more or less tunelessly shouts the lyrics as opposed to singing them and then strangely laughs like Scooby-Doo halfway through the song. (Warning: You may or may not need drugs to understand the song, but I’ll save you from that particular venture; it’s a song about conformity.)

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Luckily though, the album in general has a solid track listing that will prove commercially successful in terms of hit singles. That also means you’ll probably soon find this album at your local hipster coffee shop… and Urban Outfitters.

With fresh sounds and songs of high quality “Reflektor” is one of the better albums of the year and a prominent step forward for an already successful band. So listen and enjoy the tunes of  –– dare I say it –– a Grammy-deserving album.