Songfacts®:

• Much of the lyrical content of The Suburbs is inspired by band members Win and William Butler's upbringing in the suburbs of Houston. However, this song is about multi-instrumentalist Régine Chassagne's hometown of Montreal. Win Butler told The Sun: "It's interesting that there are similarities between Houston and the south shore of Montreal, where Regine grew up. A song like Sprawl 2 is about Montreal. Over the bridge it's the same as the Houston in 'City With No Children.'"
• The UK music publication NME asked Win Butler what track on the album he is most proud of lyrically. He replied: "I guess it'd be either 'The Suburbs' or 'Sprawl 2 (Mountains Beyond Mountains) because in each of those tracks there's kind of a whole world. There's more going on in the margins of those songs, and I think if you really get into the lyrics, there's a lot of new stuff to find."
• This song was named after Tracy Kidder's 2003 biography of Paul Farmer, the Boston anthropologist and doctor who co-founded Partners in Health. The NGO is integral to the efforts to rebuild co-vocalist Régine Chassagne's home country of Haiti after the 2010 earthquake that destroyed the already impoverished Caribbean nation.
• Coldplay guitarist Johnny Buckland is a big fan of this song. He told SiriusXM it's his favorite song to see Arcade Fire play live.