Song · The Arcade Fire
“Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)” by The Arcade Fire
From the album The Suburbs (2010)
“Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)” by The Arcade Fire appears on 14 radio countdowns from 8 stations between 2010 and 2025. It was first released in 2010 on the album The Suburbs. Its best result is #8 on the Impact 89FM Top 89 of 2010. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #187 alternative song of 2010.
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On The Suburbs, Arcade Fire's 2010 album, "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)" is the moment the band throws open the windows and lets the disco lights in. Régine Chassagne takes the lead, and the song is pure synth-pop: a pulsing, glittering rush that owes more to the dance floor than the garage, with her voice soaring over it all like she's running for the horizon. The title nods to its main inspiration, Tracy Kidder's 2003 book Mountains Beyond Mountains.
The band wrote, arranged and produced it themselves. It became the sixth and final single from the album in April 2012, arriving for Record Store Day as a 12-inch of Damian Taylor remixes backed with "Ready to Start," after a Soulwax remix had already turned up on BBC Radio 1. There were 2 videos, one of them interactive.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 8 | Impact 89FM Lansing, MI | Impact 89FM Top 89 of 2010 | 88 |
| 2010 | 70 | WFPK Louisville, KY | WFPK Top 100 Songs of 2010 | 100 |
| 2010 | 24 | WLOY Baltimore, MD | WLOY Top 50 of 2010 | 50 |
| 2010 | 27 | WTMD Baltimore, MD | WTMD Top 89 Songs of 2010 | 89 |
| 2010 | 42 | WXPN Philadelphia, PA | WXPN Year in Review: Top 100 Songs of 2010 | 100 |
| 2011 | 21 | 90.5 WERG Erie, PA | WERG Top 90 of 2011 | 90 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 215 | WXPN | WXPN 885 Greatest Songs of the New Millennium (2013) | 885 |
| 2019 | 43 | KEXP | KEXP Listeners' Favorite Songs of All Time | 627 |
| 2020 | 732 | WXPN | WXPN 2020 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2020 |
| 2022 | 285 | KEXP | KEXP Top Songs of the Last 50 Years (1972-2022) | 491 |
| 2023 | 588 | WYEP | WYEP Countdown to Fall 2023 | 1229 |
| 2024 | 802 | WYEP | WYEP Best Songs of the Past 50 Years | 1049 |
| 2024 | 187 | WXPN | WXPN The 885 Greatest Songs of the 21st Century (2024) | 885 |
| 2025 | 300 | WYEP | WYEP Best Songs of the 21st Century (So Far) | 714 |
Also listed as: Sprawl II.
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