[1][2] Arcade Fire won the 2006 Juno Award for "Songwriter of the Year" for "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)", along with two other tracks from Funeral, and the song's music video was nominated "Video of the Year".

[3] The lyrics were written by Butler and Chassagne along with former band member Deu and inspired by the North American ice storm of 1998 in Montreal, which left the city in a blackout for over a week.

[5] Butler acknowledges that the two used the outage "as a basis to start from, to talk about other stuff",[6] and so there are many ideas addressed in the song.

"[7] The lyrics also refer to Butler's idea that it is impossible to completely hide one's secrets.

[8] The video depicts several youths wearing hooded jackets cutting the power lines to a snowy 1920s steampunk city, while several old men chase them.