Freaks have made some of the best music in the past 50 years because they do not put an immediate ID tag on themselves. This way they can stick their toes in two or three genres on one album and make it their own sound. While freaks like Prince and David Bowie have been on and off in the past 20 years, the public has come to know a new freak of musical nature: His name is Beck Hansen.

Curiosity must have hit some people when they saw Arcade Fire perform for “Saturday Night Live” on Sept. 28. It was the first televised performance of Arcade Fire since they concluded the tour of their 2010 Grammy-winning tour de force “The Suburbs” and since they began a curious ad campaign behind their upcoming album. Something seemed very off: these were the faces of Arcade Fire, but no one could recall them in such a strange style.