Arcade Fire – Wasted Hours

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All those wasted hours we used to know
Spent the summers staring out the window
The wind it takes you where it wants to go

At first they built the road then they built the town
That's why we're still driving around and around
And all we see are kids in the buses longing to be free

Wasted hours before we knew
Where to go and what to do
Wasted hours that you make new
Turn into a life that we could live

Some cities make you lose your head
In this suburb stretched out thin and dead
What was that line you said?
Wishing you were anywhere but here
You watched the life you're living disappear
and now I see, we're still kids in the buses longing to be free

Wasted hours before we new
Where to go and what to do
Wasted hours that you make new
Turn into a life that we could live

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Lyrics submitted by jazzmaster5120

Track duration: 04:28


Wasted Hours song meanings
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  • 0
    General Comment:I know the song is called 'Wasted hours' but as some other people have said, I don't think that that means that they believe they were actually wasted. For me at least, it's more that people think of the time when you aren't working towards something obvious you're getting nowhere, when in actual fact, this isn't the case. The "kids in the buses longing to be free" seems to demonstrate a kind of dreaminess, and certain priorities, as the kids would rather feel a sense of wonder than be stuck in school, where they don't seem to find it. When they say that they're still the kids in the buses it sounded to me like it was because they still felt like that, and that they'd somehow lost the ability to be happy doing nothing. "Before we knew where to go or what to do" would also allude to this, as it's phrasing it as if they don't want to live this way, they just do because you 'should'.
    I agree with people saying that it's about not really living your life to an extent, but I guess I just interpreted it differently- to really live your life doesn't always mean to actually DO more, just to experience more, if you see what I mean. A kind of freedom, like the freedom to do nothing, as someone else said "if I had that time back, I'd just waste it again and again."
    Flag Coolieton February 08, 2013   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I know the song is called 'Wasted hours' but as some other people have said, I don't think that that means that they believe they were actually wasted. For me at least, it's more that people think of the time when you aren't working towards something obvious you're getting nowhere, when in actual fact, this isn't the case. The "kids in the buses longing to be free" seems to demonstrate a kind of dreaminess, and certain priorities, as the kids would rather feel a sense of wonder than be stuck in school, where they don't seem to find it. When they
    Flag Coolieton February 08, 2013   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I'm fairly certain that the song is about the wasted hours you have as a child, playing, etc. But at that time in your life you don't appreciate the luxury of doing nothing. As a kid you long to be grown up, to be free, and not have to go to school everyday, etc. But as an adult you realize that adulthood is not the freedom you imagined as a kid and you long for the times in your childhood that you could just waste hours doing whatever you want. This point is further driven home on Suburbs (continued), "If I could have it back, you know I'd love to waste it again."
    Flag Rxmarcuson August 21, 2011   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation:I think it has a note of acceptance in it. The whole album is about how they're gonna "Start" but in the end it turns into kind of a hymn to the pleasure of waiting. Even though waiting has it's drawbacks it's not the end of the world. There are still some positives. It's a life we can live.
    Flag ibantoineon July 12, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I'm not sure the "wasted hours" are necessarily a bad thing in the song. For example, in the Suburbs (continued), the lyrics read "all the time that we wasted, I'd only waste it again." I feel like there's a lot of truth to that statement. Spending time blowing in the wind and doing what you want are two things synonymous with "longing to be free." It seems to be a connection between the dull suburban childhood and adulthood. Just because one grows up doesn't mean it becomes enjoyable to be trapped in a bus (in a different sense).

    The kids in buses longing to be free are the ones that spend their summers staring out the window. As adults, they turn those wasted hours into life that they can live. However, the fact that they're "still kids in buses longing to be free" suggests that nothing has really changed. They long for the wasted hours staring out the window, rather than being caught in the fuss of daily life. Or at least that's one way I think you can look at it.
    Flag Brian902on April 24, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:This song, to me at least, speaks to everyone who's basically just laid around doing nothing for a certain amount of time. You're supposed to be living life, or accomplishing something, but you just let time pass you by. At the end of the record it's stated "If I could have it back, all the time that I wasted I'd only waste it again."
    It's talking about his younger years as a teenager when all you did was do nothing and veg out all day. I guess if he could do it again, if we could do it again, we would just do the same thing.
    Flag ActionWaterson February 24, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I firmly believe this is a love song. He's telling his significant other every thing before him/her was wasted hours and now that he's found the other person all those wasted hours led to them and have been made significant because of that. I think it's emphasized by the way the chorus is slowed down and emphasized when it's sung "wasted hours that YOU make NEW" and then ends with "turn into a life that we can live."
    Flag whyduhitmeon February 09, 2011   Link
  • 0
    My Opinion:As a kid you "waste" your hours doing nothing on lazy summer days.
    In hindsight, these hours might just as well have been the best of your life, while at the same time the hours that came after childhood (working for The Man and comforming to society and all) might be the hours that are truly the "wasted" ones.
    Flag GaiusBertuson December 27, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I think it's pure genius how they use the same lyrics in different songs across the album, capturing the repetition of suburban life - the lines "first they built the road then they built the town, that's why we're still driving around and around" are in Month of May too.

    I don't think these wasted hours are necessarily a negative thing...you only have to listen to The Suburbs (continued) to see that. It's just about enjoying yourself and making the most of what you've got, living in the moment.
    Flag irateon December 21, 2010   Link
  • -2
    General Comment:it's about being becoming too complacent with life in the suburbs
    Flag nigeon October 15, 2010   Link

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