We Used to Wait
| "We Used to Wait" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Arcade Fire | ||||
| from the album The Suburbs | ||||
| Released | August 1, 2010 | |||
| Format | ||||
| Genre | ||||
| Length |
5:02 (album version) 3:28 (radio edit) | |||
| Label | ||||
| Writer(s) | Arcade Fire (William Butler, Win Butler, Régine Chassagne, Jeremy Gara, Tim Kingsbury, Richard Reed Parry) | |||
| Producer(s) |
| |||
| Arcade Fire singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"We Used to Wait" is the first UK single from Arcade Fire's third album The Suburbs, following "Ready to Start", which was the first US single. It was released on August 1, 2010 in the UK.[1]
The Wilderness Downtown
The song is also part of the experimental project The Wilderness Downtown, an interactive music video to tout the HTML 5 strengths of the Google Chrome web browser. It figures prominently in the location-based audiovisual web experience and the name of the project is taken from a line in the song.[2]
Reception
Rolling Stone named it the 5th best song of 2010. It also named its interactive music video 'thewildernessdowntown.com' one of the best music videos of 2010.
In February 2011, music video blog Yes, We've Got a Video! ranked the project at number 2 in their top 30 videos of 2010. The project was praised as a "beautiful experiment that has significantly pushed the boundaries of the music video by introducing the factor of interactivity."[3]
In July 2011, the music video was named one of "The 30 All-TIME Best Music Videos" by TIME Magazine.[4]
Covers
On 20 October 2010, Mark Ronson and Business Intl, featuring Alex Greenwald on both vocals and the mandolin, and Rose Dougall on backing vocals, covered the song on Jo Whiley’s BBC Radio 1 show.[5] The Drums also covered this song.
Chart performance
| Chart (2010) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders)[6] | 31 |
| Belgium (Ultratop 50 Wallonia)[7] | 40 |
| Netherlands (Single Top 100)[8] | 95 |
| UK Singles (Official Charts Company)[9] | 75 |
| US Alternative Songs (Billboard)[10] | 22 |
| US Hot Rock Songs (Billboard)[11] | 42 |
References
- ↑ Praxis Media. "Radio1 Rodos Greece ::: UK Forthcoming Singles ::: Charts, DJ Promos, Dance, Lyrics, Free Mp3 Samples Downloads". Radio1.gr. Retrieved December 6, 2010.
- ↑ "The Wilderness Downtown". The Wilderness Downtown. August 19, 2010. Retrieved December 6, 2010.
- ↑ "Top 30 Videos of 2010: 10 – 1!". Yes, We've Got a Video!. February 3, 2011. Retrieved March 19, 2012.
- ↑ Josh Sanburn (July 28, 2011). "The 30 All-TIME Best Music Videos - Arcade Fire, 'We Used To Wait/The Wilderness Downtown'". TIME. Retrieved August 19, 2011.
- ↑ "Mark Ronson Covers Arcade Fire". Stereogum. SpinMedia. October 20, 2010. Retrieved December 6, 2010.
- ↑ "Ultratop.be – Arcade Fire – We Used To Wait" (in Dutch). Ultratop 50.
- ↑ "Ultratop.be – Arcade Fire – We Used To Wait" (in French). Ultratop 50.
- ↑ "Dutchcharts.nl – Arcade Fire – We Used To Wait" (in Dutch). Single Top 100.
- ↑ "Archive Chart: 2010-08-14" UK Singles Chart.
- ↑ "Arcade Fire – Chart history" Billboard Alternative Songs for Arcade Fire.
- ↑ "Arcade Fire – Chart history" Billboard Hot Rock Songs for Arcade Fire.