The five best deep cuts by The National
Over the last 20 years, The National have established a blueprint that every indie band should try to follow. Internationally, The National headlines festivals and arenas the world over, but admirably, they’ve never sacrificed their soul in exchange.
As a band, The National is now into their third decade together, which is longer than any of the members suspected upon their formation in 1999. It hasn’t been a fast road to success, and it wasn’t until their third album, Aligator, that band started to receive critical acclaim. In 2007, they became even more treasured after dropping the masterpiece project Boxer, and since the follow-up, High Violet, they’ve been one of the world’s most revered outfits.
After almost four years away, The National are now back with their new album, First Two Pages Of Frankenstein, which arrives on April 28th through 4AD. According to singer Matt Berninger, they initially struggled on the album and landed in “a very dark spot where I couldn’t come up with lyrics or melodies at all. Even though we’d always been anxious whenever we were working on a record, this was the first time it ever felt like maybe things really had come to an end.”
Bryce Dessner added: “We managed to come back together and approach everything from a different angle, and because of that we arrived at what feels like a new era for the band.”
In celebration of The National’s return, Far Out is shining a light on five of the best-hidden gems in their back catalogue. While these songs aren’t among the most played on streaming platforms, they undoubtedly deserve your attention.
The five best deep cuts by The National:
‘Beautiful Head’
For the first entry on the list, we are going back to the beginning with ‘Beautiful Head’. The track is the opener for their eponymous debut album, which was made before the arrival of Bryce Dessner. It’s no exaggeration to say The National sound like a completely different group on the acoustic-driven ‘Beautiful Head’.
‘Beautiful Head’ is much more minimalistic than the music The National later went on to produce. However, a huge selling point of their material is frontman Matt Berninger’s lyricism and delivery, which cut the listener to their core, such as on this release. He sings: “Do not tell me I’ve changed, You’re just raising your standards, Do not give me away, I am the same.”
‘Ada’
Six years after their debut, The National were finally being treated with the respect they deserved for their craftsmanship. Boxer became their first album to become a commercial success. However, ‘Ada’ is often left out of the conversation when people discuss the record’s magnificence. Instead, attention is usually diverted to ‘Fake Empire’, ‘Slow Show’, and ‘Apartment Story’.
In all honesty, every single track from Boxer deserves adulation as it’s one of the finest albums of the era. ‘Ada’ is a typical The National creation with heartbreaking lyrics juxtaposing with the uplifting orchestration on the track. Astonishingly, since 2014, it’s only been played live twice by the group, and hopefully, that will change soon.
‘Lemonworld’
‘Lemonworld’ is an encapsulation of everything beautiful about The National. The idea of a Lemonworld is open to the listener’s interpretation. While there is more than an element of darkness which radiates from the song, its opulent nature is irresistible.
Berninger told The Quietus: “A Lemonworld is an invented, sexy, weird place where you can escape from New York. I had some image of it being a big beautiful, maybe semi-decrepit house. You know the documentary Grey Gardens? It’s set in a house out in the Hamptons, it’s about this crazy mother and daughter who live there in their own little world. It’s also very depressing and odd and beautiful.”
‘Exile Vilify’
‘Exile Vilify’ is the very definition of a deep cut, and it would be easy for this song not to appear on your radar. After all, it was never given an official video or is even available on Spotify. However, it’s one of the most haunting songs The National have ever produced.
In 2011, The National teamed up with the video game Portal 2 and produced this jaw-droppingly beautiful piano-led creation for the soundtrack. Like many songs by The National, the orchestration will reduce you to tears, and the fact it was deemed acceptable to throw the release away for a video game is utterly befuddling. In the emotive track, Berninger asks: “You’ve got suckers luck, Have you given up? Does it feel like a trial? Does it trouble your mind the way you trouble mine? Does it feel like a trial? Did you fall for the same empty answers again?”
‘Sunshine On My Back’
In 2015, The National needed to tide their fans with a release as they were touring, and it had been two years since the release of Trouble Will Find Me. Rather than wait until their next album, The National shared the Sharon Van Etten collaboration, ‘Sunshine On My Back’, which was a melancholy delight despite the summer vibes the title suggests.
Despite being released in 2015, it was recorded during the sessions for Trouble Will Find Me. For some inexplicable reason, The National couldn’t find a home for the track on the record, but thankfully, they released it and shared it with the general public. It would have been a crying shame if ‘Sunshine On My Back’ remained on the shelf. Even now, it remains an underappreciated gem in their discography.
