Song of the Day

I love this band. It’s one of my favorite indie music rock bands of all time. And my favorite song of theirs, “Mistaken for Strangers” can’t be embedded, so I posted this song instead. But I like this song a lot too, and it’s off their newest album High Violet which is just as good as their last one Boxer from 2007.

One of the things that’s so absorbing about their music is the lyrics and the thoughts that they provoke in the context of the song. Although The National are fairly well known, I still have never heard them on the radio before and it’s really disappointing because they are amazing.

My favorite song of theirs, “Mistaken for Strangers has a story that I would love to make a music video to. When I hear it I have the same daydreams again and again, imagining an alienated man walking down the street, not being recognized by his own friends. He feels a deep sadness and apathy over his life and the world around him while reflecting on a life sacrificed in the pursuit of monetary gain. “Oh you wouldn’t want an angel watching over, surprise surprise, they wouldn’t wanna watch, another uninnocent elegant fall into the unmagnificent lives of adults.” But then he catches the glimpse of a man being carried away by a strange woman with wings (off to another world) and realizes that his life is not over yet and there is still time, or maybe the song is to put us in that persons shoes and give us hindsight before it’s too late. This is the vision, but the force in it are the inner epiphanies and emotions that I feel when the song guides me through the mind of the protagonist. But take what you want from it, it’s an amazing song.

Another song of theirs you have to hear is Sorrow, which is also amazing. It seems almost all of their songs are love songs, which is perhaps what makes them so powerful. And love songs at the moment when you we perhaps feel the depth of our feelings the most, at the time when we are most vulnerable, and when it hits us the hardest, when we feel that we are losing it.

However, the songs don’t wallow in sorrow or pain. They are there for us to pick us up, to show us a depth of feeling and then pick us up and hold us high to show us that the world we live in is not something to be missed and that our lives are precious. In the song Fake Empire for example, which I interpret as an anthem for all those disenchanted by the state of the world and the role our country (the US) has played in making it so amazingly, and seemingly inexplicably, screwed up, the song begins with a slow minor-key soundscape. But then it lifts us up from our slump and takes us, at least emotionally to a place with hope, new horizons, and fresh air. (this is not an Obama endorsement)

As for this song Bloodbuzz Ohio, it makes me think of a man who’s almost lost the love of his life and is pleading with someone or himself to keep the relationship. Or maybe he’s looking back and recalling that time and the events that led to up to it. And perhaps now he’s in the future living through the horrible memory of it allin an alcohol or drug induced buzz. In this context the song becomes as powerful as your imagination. Perhaps also, the music video confirms this interpretation by showing him alone in a world without color, returning to places where beautiful memories were once created. The songs are so sad in their way, and yet also inspiring in their sadness. They are a message telling us not to lose the people we love, not to give up on ourselves and they grant us the power to see the future, and warn us of a version of ourselves that’s still yet to be. A future which, after fully comprehending its implications, like Ebenezer Scrooge and Francesca Johnson from Madison County, we know with all our strength we should never allow to happen.

What do you think of when you hear these two songs by this indie rock band from Brooklyn? Bloodbuzz Ohio and Mistaken for Strangers?

Find your own Song of the Day by The National on their website, MySpace, Last.fm, and Amazon.

This song: Bloodbuzz Ohio on iTunes