Songfacts®:

• This song about seeking a paradise in a place where there are no roads was originally part of an EP that Arcade Fire recorded in 2003. Drummer Jeremy Gara told popmatters.com why they decided to update it: "We started recording the album last November. We had a new studio space and all this new gear, so we just needed to start with something that was easy for us to play so we could get used to everything else. 'No Cars Go' had changed so much on tour from how we originally recorded it. The version on the EP is cool but it's a mess, and the version we had been touring with was way more of a straight-up rock song. So there was always talk of redoing it. And now that we had more of a budget, we wanted to record it with the string arrangements that Regine had always envisioned."
• US TV network Fox TV used "No Cars Go" in an advert for the NFL which was aired during the halftime show of the 2008 Super Bowl. However, the network did not ask Arcade Fire's permission to use the music in the advert and the band considered legal action.