It was co-produced by LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy, regular Arcade Fire producer Markus Dravs, and the band themselves.

Influenced by Haitian rara music, the 1959 film Black Orpheus, and Søren Kierkegaard's essay "Two Ages",[2] Reflektor's release was preceded by a guerrilla marketing campaign inspired by veve drawings and the release of the title track as a limited edition single credited to the fictional band The Reflektors on September 9, 2013.

[3] The album's origins stem from a trip that both vocalist/guitarist Win Butler and multi-instrumentalist Régine Chassagne took to her family's home country of Haiti.

There was a band I [feel] changed me musically, just really opened me up to this huge, vast amount of culture and influence I hadn't been exposed to before, which was really life-changing.

"[2] Inspired by the country's rara music, Butler and Chassagne incorporated elements of this sound into the band's new material, alongside Jamaican influences.

[4] Recording in Louisiana, the band began work on Reflektor in 2011, and subsequently moved to Jamaica the following year with producer Markus Dravs.

Both of them are very much influenced by when the sun is just starting to go down in Port au Prince, and it's really intense because most of the city doesn't have electricity so everyone is just racing to get home before dark.

[17] The Reflektor campaign received negative publicity when an article that appeared in Slate in September 2013 depicted instances of property damage that resulted from the advertisements.

The band made an apology, explaining that the viral wall stencils were meant to use chalk or other washable media, rather than spray paint, nor binding glues under the paper advertisements.

Although the events surrounding the album's release take place in the real world, their impermanence suits the use of social media, where the campaign is documented and shared.

[6] The album's artwork features an image of Auguste Rodin’s sculpture of Orpheus and Eurydice photo credit:Joseph Coscia Jr, Metropolitan Museum of Art.

[22] Following the band's September 28 appearance on Saturday Night Live, a 30-minute concert special aired on NBC featuring cameos including Rainn Wilson, Bono, Ben Stiller, James Franco, Michael Cera and Zach Galifianakis.

[25] On October 21, the song "Afterlife" was debuted in a music video, playing over edited clips of Marcel Camus's 1959 film Black Orpheus.

On October 21, the song "Normal Person" aired on The Colbert Report, with the band identified not as Arcade Fire but only as "The Reflektors".

On October 24, a lyric video for the Official Reflektor Full Album Teaser,[26] playing over longer clips of Marcel Camus's 1959 film Black Orpheus was posted to the band's website.

"[36] USA Today stated that on the album, "much of the music — audacious, heavily distorted and bubbling with electronics — sounds magnificently fresh.

As the ensemble shape-shifts from the cleaner rock template of The Suburbs and Neon Bible to exotic beat-driven mashups, Arcade owes a debt to David Bowie (who has a brief cameo[39][40]) and Achtung-era U2.

Co-producer James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem also brings his rhythmic chops to the mix in dizzying dance hybrids.

"[43] In a mixed review, PopMatters journalist J. C. Maçek III said "Reflektor doesn't contain any actually bad songs (the closest we can peg on the collection would be a small amount of filler material), but the impact of a full listen is one of catchy excitement and impressive pop rock which slowly rolls downhill into the murky sonic depths of the more somber second half without any truly punctuating final moment of the record itself.

"[44] Simon Goddard of Q wrote that Reflektor fails to "fully justify the size of it and it doesn't end so much as unravel" and "is proof you really can have too much of a good thing.

[48] 17 music journalists of the Polish media company Agora SA (Gazeta Wyborcza, Gazeta.pl, TOK FM) placed Reflektor at number one in their ranking of 10 Best Foreign Albums of 2013.