UNDERLINE EVERYTHING

IS SQUALOR VICTORIA THE SONG OF THE DECADE?

i started listening to the national for a reason that's less than ideal, so i'm not going to disclose it on the internet, but i would be lying if i said i found out about them through some random hype machine escapades, bored searching through music blog archives, or for even better reasons like accidentally seeing them live. shamefully, i bought boxer only recently, but then i was hooked. revelation time. what is this beautiful creature? matt beringer has a voice like whale singing and cake icing. squalor victoria is all fast drums and mournful strings. can't you FEEL it when the piano comes in? something must happen here. something must happen here. what will happen here? and the piano happens. and the voice happens. and it all happens. this is a perfect song. it speaks of a thousand things.

when i saw the national live i was not convinced by them and i was not one hundred percent sure that they were something fantastic until they played squalor victoria. after they played squalor victoria they played...

IS ABEL THE SONG OF THE DECADE?

abel. and i remember it was pouring rain and i was soaking wet and i heard "MY MIND'S NOT RIGHT" and i was talking to simone at the time and then i started yelling the words in her face in the middle of the sentence (i'll leave you to wonder about the validity of that statement because right after the national i saw vampire weekend for the eighth time). whereas squalor victoria is all polished and smooth, with that rainy new-york gloom, abel is just a perfect rock song. the best part is maybe two and a half minutes in: "abel, my mind's... come loose inside the shell!" and then the guitar. what a great song. wonderful to stand in the pouring rain and scream that something's wrong with you. something's inherently wrong with you if you'll go through something like that for music, and maybe by wrong here i just mean REALLY, REALLY RIGHT.


IS BOXER THE ALBUM OF THE DECADE?
this was so hard for me to decide because i love alligator too.


(note chandelier)

let's just say these would both make a top fifty for me.

ps. let's CONSIDER AARON DESSNER too!