Running Up The Charts: Arcade Fire and "We Used To Wait"

Kicking off a new feature, highlighting songs from my running playlist and their chart performance on my quest to go from dad bod to beast mode

Arcade Fire - “We Used To Wait”

Chart peak: #22 on the Alternative Songs chart, March 12, 2011

About a month ago, one of my best friends sent a text message to our close-knit group suggesting we participate in a 10-mile race called “Beast On The Bay.” It’s a foot race that covers different terrain over the course of those 10 miles: sand, pavement, swamps, etc. If that weren’t enough, there are 30 obstacles scattered throughout the course, varying in degrees of difficulty but culminating in a long run up a very sizable hill, one of the titular “beasts” to overcome at the end.

The suggestion came just as the 2023 version of the race concluded, and as I reflected on it I decided I could use the 2024 race as inspiration to finally shed a reasonable amount of the weight I gained as a result of both slowing metabolism and nine years of super-commuting more than 70 miles to my job (a commute I’m glad to say is substantially shorter these days). But the rub is that, in order to run the race, I need to be in some kind of good shape, and my baseline shape at this point is more rounded and soft than I’d prefer.

So three weeks ago I decided to start with some light running and cardio, and work my way back into a weight-lifting regimen this month. I have a little less than a year to get into the kind of athletic form I need to succeed in September 2024, so I’m committed to consistent exercise and better dietary habits as a result.

What’s nice is that I have a playlist of workout music I’ve built over the years from the days when I was in better shape and exercised more consistently. Over the course of 10 years I ran a marathon and three half-marathons before pandemic-era Matt lost all interest in running and transferred that interest into Burger King croissanwiches and Taco Bell burritos. As the years have gone by, I’ve added new songs to that playlist while retaining the old ones, and I find all the songs to be both motivational and just great overall.

This leads me to the first song I’ll highlight on my workout playlist: Arcade Fire’s “We Used To Wait.” It’s an unconventional choice, to be sure, but it’s also the song that’s held the first slot on that playlist for at least a decade.

What is it about “We Used To Wait” that makes it a good workout song? First, I was inspired by the HTML5 demonstration Google presented in 2010 using “We Used To Wait” as the backdrop. The demonstration is still available online as of this writing, and the whole video features someone running through a neighborhood to the tune of Arcade Fire. (One fun little twist is that the video, designed around the viewer’s childhood address and using Google’s imaging technology, highlighted a person’s run through the suburbs, using a track off an album titled, “The Suburbs.”)

I’d argue the song builds itself up from an initial burst of light, steady keyboard plinking into a musical explosion of myriad instruments and voices. The band features multiple musicians and singers, and the way they harmonize together just sets your mood right when you’re grinding through another long run or treadmill session.

As this Substack is named “Chart Chat,” my goal in featuring these songs is to reflect on their Billboard chart performance. Most of the songs I’ll feature will have some connection to the Modern Rock Tracks/Alternative Songs/Alternative Airplay chart, which is the chart I’ve been highlighting since I launched this project in January, with occasional looks at songs that peaked on other charts.

“We Used To Wait” peaked much lower than I would have expected on the Alternative Songs chart, given its ubiquity on the radio, the success of “The Suburbs” (it won Album of the Year at the 2011 Grammy Awards and topped the Billboard 200 album chart), and the song’s use in a widely viewed Google Chrome demonstration. That said, the track’s #22 peak was, at the time, the band’s second-highest-charting alternative song (“Ready To Start” topped out at #16 six months prior), and it helped bring Arcade Fire to a larger audience.

As I introduce more of these songs over the course of the next year, I’d be curious to know about your workout playlists and the tracks that help motivate you through difficult stretches of running or exercising. I’m always on the lookout for new tracks, especially as my workouts get longer and more involved.

Thanks for reading and participating in my workout journey, from dad bod to beast mode. #DadBod2BeastMode