The National only really started being talked about on the international scene in the wake of their critically-lauded third album, Alligator, and since then have progressed even further, culminating (in the UK, at least) in 3 quickly sold-out dates at the massive Brixton Academy (one of which I attended). But back when they were still just bankers in New York releasing tehir own records, they put out some astonishing stuff. Their first album has flashes of brilliance (such as '29 Years', the song that later morphed into 'Slow Show' from Boxer), but was slightly undermined by the feeling the band wasn't taking itself that seriously. Their second record, 'Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers', didn't suffer at all from that - it's hard to imagine a more serious-sounding song than the opener 'Cardinal Song', with it's refrain 'Never tell the one you want that you do; save it for the deathbed, when you know you kept her wanting you'. I absolutely love the whole album, which showcases some of the things the National used to be really good at before their sound got a bit homogenised on the last album or two - it has probably my favourite 'shouty' National song, Available, and closes with one of my favourite slow introspective songs from any artist, Lucky You.
Basically a piano-led ballad about the fall-out of a breakup, there really is a lot crammed into this fairly stark, basic song. It seems to me to be addressed to a girl that the singer has broken up with - the girl has moved on, and Berninger hasn't, despite trying. Lines like 'You're too smart to remember' and the title sound incredibly sarcastic in Berninger's trademark baritone drawl. There's a darker side too, with the first verse seeming to be set right after the breakup - Berninger sounds like a fairly standard stalker in this. The song progresses, however, right through to the last verse, where Berninger has possibly mellowed, despite his obviously intense remaining feelings, to a place which is much more emotionally stable, albeit much sadder. The lines 'You clean yourself to meet the man who isn't me, you're putting on a shirt - a shirt I'll never see' offer some kind of recovery, while admitting that recovery is a long way off.
The recording I've given below is the one from the Daytrotter Session they did back in 2007. The whole thing is worth listening to, and the version of 'Slow Show' is excellent. I've chosen this over the album version because I think it's slightly cleaner and more intimate, and works better as a stand-alone track than the album version.
The National - Lucky You
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