The heartbreaking beauty at the centre of The National’s ‘New Order T-Shirt’
Just as the Covid pandemic cut through all facets of the music community during the Pandemic’s upending peak, so too were Ohio’s The National‘s plans scuppered indefinitely—a scheduled tour’s cancellation forcing the band to atomise and pursue other projects following 2019’s I Am Easy to Find. This enforced break hadn’t helped Matt Berninger’s creative juices when reconvening with the band for the looming follow-up.
His debut solo effort, Serpentine Prison, had been warmly received. However, a bout of writer’s block and a darkened mood frustrated the creative process to such a degree it was feared the band had reached its end.
Finally shaking off the lyrical rust once eventual lead-single ‘Tropic Morning News’ had been sketched with his wife Carin Besser, the rest of the album flowed joyously together and brought some optimism back between the band. The second single from 2023’s First Two Pages of Frankenstein would be the tragic ‘New Order T-Shirt’, a melancholy wander through past love via the sentimental motif of a mutually cherished band tee.
Struck with the ruminative pining over an old ex, Berninger casts his mind back to his old lover who couldn’t stop wearing his favourite Manchester synthpop band‘s merch. “I keep what I can of you / Split-second glimpses and snapshots and sounds / You in my New Order T-shirt,” he croons, clinging on to a piece of clothing and thus a piece of his life lost forever.
Further drama engulfs the melancholy tale of heartache. The band living in New York City during the 9/11 attacks, Berninger the strange way life can flash a romantic gesture on the street one moment, and the swarm of dust and debris that could engulf Lower Manhattan the next: “How you tapped on a box of blue American Spirits / At Anyway Cafe a little under a month / Before the ashes and management capital files filled the streets”.
First Two Pages of Frankenstein enjoyed a respectable critical reception and even topped the UK and Billboard independent and alternative albums charts. ‘New Order T-Shirt’ would grow to hold sentimental affection for the band, drummer Bryan Devendorf playing the single to his and bassist Scott Devendortf’s mother shortly before its release. “Our mom is going through some cognitive decline right now,” he revealed to Uncut. “She’s still there enough. She heard this song, and she loved it. She said, ‘You’re really good!’ This is such a sad song, but it’s beautiful!”
Whatever dry spell had plagued The National had been quashed following the First Two Pages of Frankenstein‘s fruitful sessions. Possessing scores of studio recordings and finding time to enter the studio during their 2023 tour, the band dropped a surprise follow-up, Laugh Track, that year. Buoyed by the precarious waver into dissolution averted, they were back together, making the music they loved as they had done back in 1999.
“Maybe it’s having come through a really hard time and nearly not surviving as a band,” guitarist Aaron Dessner revealed to Esquire. Concluding, “We came back together, and we felt healthy.”
