Keep the Car Running

Rough Trade released it in the UK on 19 March 2007 on 7-inch vinyl with the B-side "Broken Window", and it peaked at 56 on the UK Singles Chart. Merge issued it in the US on 8 May 2007, where it reached 32 on the Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart. The single version runs 3:28. Win Butler plays mandolin and Chassagne plays hurdy-gurdy, with Richard Reed Parry on electric guitar, Tim Kingsbury on bass, Will Butler on keyboards and Jeremy Gara on drums. Owen Pallett and Sarah Neufeld play violin, Marika Anthony Shaw viola and Melanie Auclair cello.

Rolling Stone placed it 22nd on its list of the 100 best songs of 2007, and NME ranked it 61st on its 150 best tracks of the past 15 years in October 2011. Pitchfork's Stephen M. Deusner named it among the songs that crescendo and intensify rather than erupt.

Live and covers

The band played it on Saturday Night Live on 24 February 2007. On 14 October 2007 in Ottawa, Win Butler and Chassagne joined Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band to play it. Foo Fighters covered it in 2007, including at The O2 in London and on Jo Whiley's Live Lounge, and it appears on their Let It Die single. The Williamsburg Salsa Orchestra recorded a Latin-flavored version, and Fiction Family covered it on their 2009 tour.