Line #54 Music/TheNational


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/The_National_8374.jpg]]
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3	The National are a [[PostPunk Post-Punk Revival]] band from New York, primarily known for their laid-back, yet melancholy sound. The band consists of Matt Berninger (singer / songwriter), Aaron Dessner (bassist / guitarist / keyboardist), Bryce Dessner (guitarist / keyboardist), Bryan Devendorf (drummer), and Scott Devendorf (bassist / guitarist).
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5	They started out with a small underground following in 1999, producing mostly SoOkayItsAverage albums and [=EPs=], until their 2005 album, ''Alligator'' which turned them into critical darlings. From there, their albums continued to get better. In 2007, their album, ''Boxer'' was featured on many "Best of the Year" lists, and in 2010 their fifth album, ''High Violet'' won them further critical attention. The album has even been in competition with Music/ArcadeFire's ''The Suburbs'' and Music/BeachHouse's ''Teen Dream'' in year-end charts. In 2011 they provided a song featured in Portal 2 at the request of the developers and performed "[[Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire The Rains of Castamere]]" for the 2012 season of ''Series/GameOfThrones''. The golden run then continued in 2013 with the release of their sixth album ''Trouble Will Find Me.'' This one only continued their increasing popularity, and the band would go on a brief hiatus to produce side projects like EL VY, Pfarmers, and LNZNDRF, all with a more psychedelic bent. This experimentation would feed into their next album, ''Sleep Well Beast'', preceded by the surprisingly upbeat "The System Only Dreams In Total Darkness." They returned in 2019 with ''I Am Easy To Find,'' produced by director [[Film/TwentiethCenturyWomen Mike Mills.]]
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7	Unlike many bands in the Indie/Alternative movement, they don't rely on of happy/poppy or aggressive hooks to keep their music going. Instead they focus on sombre, tug-at-your-heartstrings type of music. Matt Berninger's Baritone vocals provide very bittersweet lyrics accompanied by the band that keeps a lush sound spiraling in the background. Many people claim that their music helps them through depressing times in their lives and actually uplifts them. Other people tend to call them too melancholy and dismiss them in the same manner as Music/{{Radiohead}} gets dismissed.
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9	Other musical ventures by the band include [[Music/ElVy EL VY]] (Matt Berninger, Music/RamonaFalls, Music/{{Menomena}}), Music/BigRedMachine (Aaron Dessner, [[Music/BonIver Justin Vernon]]), Music/{{Pfarmers}} (Bryan Devendorf, Danny Seim, Dave Nelson), Music/{{LNZNDRF}} (the Devendorfs, [[Music/{{Beirut}} Ben Lanz and Aaron Arntz]]). Matt Berninger also has a solo career, while Bryce Dessner is a notable composer of music.
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11	[[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with]] the Creator/{{CBC}}'s flagship evening NewsBroadcast.
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13	!!Discography
14	* ''The National'' (2001)
15	* ''Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers'' (2003)
16	* ''Alligator'' (2005)
17	* ''Boxer'' (2007)
18	* ''High Violet'' (2010)
19	* ''Trouble Will Find Me'' (2013)
20	* ''Sleep Well Beast'' (2017)
21	* ''I Am Easy to Find'' (2019)
22	* ''First Two Pages of Frankenstein'' (2023)
23	* ''Laugh Track'' (2023)
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25	----
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27	!! ''The National'' contains examples of the following tropes:
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29	* AlbumTitleDrop: The title ''Trouble Will Find Me'' is derived from a lyric in "Sea of Love" ("If I stay here, trouble will find me").
30	* AmbiguousGender:
31	** It's never explicitly stated if the Joe in "Sea of Love" is a man or a woman, since the name could go either way. The album's liner notes use "Joe" instead of "Jo", suggesting a man, but they also use "child" in place of boy or girl which keeps it ambiguous.
32	** "Rylan" is confirmed to be genderless.
33	* ArcSymbol:
34	** Children in "I Am Easy To Find". There's "I remember a kid in the water" (So Far So Fast), "I'm a child in that way, dear" (Hey Rosey), the "child at the border" (Not in Kansas), "everybody loves a quiet child" (Rylan).
35	** Also, water in "I Am Easy To Find". There's the wordless "Underwater" and "Her Father in the Pool", "underwater you're almost free" (Rylan)...
36	* ArmorPiercingQuestion:
37	** In "Daughters of the Soho Riots".
38	-->How does anyone know how they got to be this way?
39	** "Rylan" actually has several:
40	-->Is it easy to keep so quiet?
41	--> Is it easy to live inside yourself?
42	* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: "Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks".
43	--> Leave your home
44	--> Change your name
45	--> Live alone
46	--> Eat your cake
47	* BandOfRelatives: Type 1: Aaron and Bryce are twins, and Bryan and Scott are brothers.
48	* BeardOfSorrow: Matt seems to sport one of these when it's not a PermaStubble.
49	* [[BreakupSong Breakup Album]]: ''Trouble Will Find Me''.
50	* CallBack: Happens quite often considering Matt is the primary writer for the band, and how his lyrics are very self-referential. For example, "Slow Show" on ''Boxer'' references the title lyrics to "29 Years" all the way back on the first album.
51	* CarefulWithThatAxe: Matt did this occasionally on their earlier albums. It's especially effective in "Slipping Husband", as it's a quiet song where Matt suddenly erupts towards the end with a truly jarring scream. "Abel" basically has Matt do this for its duration. In addition, live performances of "Available", "Squalor Victoria", "Mr November", and "Graceless" also tend to feature a great deal of this.
52	* ConceptAlbum: Although none of the band members have officially offered any confirmation, the lyrics of ''Trouble Will Find Me'' suggest that the album might be the story of the dissolution and aftermath of a relationship between a man named Joe and a woman named Jennifer.
53	** According [[WordOfGod Matt Berninger]], ''Boxer'' is one of these as well. The underlying theme of the album seems to be about growing into adulthood, and the anxieties that come with it.
54	** ''Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers'' plays this straight.
55	** ''I Am Easy To Find'' plays with this.
56	* CoolShades: Both Devendorf brothers don a pair of red-tinted sunglasses.
57	* DarkerAndEdgier:
58	** ''High Violet'' is noticeably darker in apparent subject matter and tone than anything the band's previously put out, the lightest song being "Terrible Love" and the heaviest being "Runaway".
59	** ''Trouble Will Find Me'' goes even further. The album's lyrics and tone are unrelentingly bleak throughout and it's the quietest album by the band yet. While it is beautifully-composed and written, it is by no stretch of the imagination a happy album.
60	** ''Sleep Well Beast'' plays with this on the whole; it has some of their poppiest songs ever, but also some of their most heartbreaking lyrics.
61	** ''I Am Easy To Find'' also plays with this. It's one of the most "political" and, specifically, topical of The National's albums. "Not In Kansas", for instance, has:
62	-->Ohio's in a downward spiral / I can't go back there anymore / Since alt-right opium went viral
63	-->My shadow's getting shorter, I'm a child at the border / Oh, godmother, you can't ignore us / There isn't anybody left to love us
64	-->I'm leaving home, and I'm scared that I won't have the balls to punch a Nazi. [[ArmorPiercingQuestion Oh, father, what is wrong with me?]]
65	* DeadpanSnarker: Matt. Sometimes it spills into the lyrics as well.
66	* DownerEnding: "Hard to Find" functions as one for the narrative of ''Trouble Will Find Me''. The protagonist (Joe), has the opportunity to pursue the person that he has spent the album reflecting on (presumably Jennifer), but passes it up due to his belief that being together is an impossibility, thereby resigning himself to continue yearning for her and contemplating their past together.
67	* DrunkenSong: "All the Wine", "Bloodbuzz Ohio", and countless others.
68	** "City Middle" is a darker take, which has references to Tennessee Williams' ''Theatre/CatOnAHotTinRoof'', mentioning ''"I wait for the click/But it doesn't kick in.''" "The click" being the hopes that alcoholism will erase all the troubles that sober life brings, but it tragically never works.
69	** "Don't Swallow the Cap" also functions as a darker take on this type of song. The track's narrator is clearly in a terrible state of drunkenness, sadness, and disorientation, but he oscillates between denial and panic throughout the song. Similarly to "City Middle", it also references Tennessee Williams. In this case, its title refers to the manner in which Williams died.
70	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: They were originally more of an alt-country band with their first two albums before their gradual transition to indie rock with ''Alligator'' and ''Boxer'', and eventually art rock and baroque pop with ''High Violet'' onward.
71	* EchoingAcoustics:
72	** On High Violet, everything reverberates. EVERY. SINGLE. INSTRUMENT.
73	** Trouble Will Find Me does it even MORE. Matt has admitted that when he's coming up with lyrics, he puts whatever the Dessners set him into GarageBand, ''adds reverb to it'', and basically sings until he comes up with some words.
74	* EpicRocking: "Son", "A Reasonable Man (I Don't Mind)", "Runaway", "England" and "Humiliation" all exceed five minutes, while "Cardinal Song" exceeds six.
75	** The live version of "About Today" from ''The Virginia EP'' is eight minutes and twenty-five seconds long.
76	** One of their most memorable concerts was when they played "Sorrow" live on repetition for a record time of ''six hours non-stop''.
77	** The title track of ''Sleep Well Beast'' extends well near seven minutes.
78	* FadingIntoTheNextSong: "I Need My Girl" into "Humiliation" on ''Trouble Will Find Me''
79	* FreeHandedPerformer: Matt Berninger claimed in an interview that he has no knowledge in music theory and can't even play the tambourine right.
80	* IndecipherableLyrics: Matt's PerishingAltRockVoice is so perishing that he sometimes sounds like he just got done DrowningHisSorrows before he recorded the song. For an example, see "Blank Slate".
81	* ImmediateSelfContradiction: Several. Notably, "If you want to be alone, come with me" ''and'' "Change your mind, and nothing changes" from "Rylan".
82	* LongRunnerLineUp: The same five guys since 1999.
83	* LoudnessWar: Despite their critical acclaim, they've received a bunch of criticism for their mastering. Clipping is especially apparent on the climax of "Slipping Husband" and the ending of "Murder Me Rachel." Most of their songs are limited/compressed to the point where "90-Mile Water Wall" is as loud as "Abel."
84	** Unfortunately this also results in what could have been very dynamic mixes like "Karen" becoming crushed and drowning out the vocals.
85	*** It's for this reason the vinyl releases sound entirely different; instruments recorded at different levels remained so, so guitars and drums that were overbearing on the CD releases became smaller side notes. Albums up to ''Alligator'' in particular benefit from their vinyl releases since they lack the distinguishing reverberated vocals found on later albums. Bizzarely enough, the vinyl versions don't ''really'' fix the clipping issues associated with the CD versions either, they just ''sound'' more dynamic because the levels are different.
86	** For some reason averted with the self-titled's "29 Years."
87	* LyricalColdOpen: "Cardinal Song"
88	* TheMovie: Two; there was one about the making of Boxer called "A Skin, a Night" and there was another, more important one called "Mistaken for Strangers." This one is about the National's lead singer's brother, Tom, following the band on tour and it documents the relationship between Tom and Matt.
89	* NewSoundAlbum:
90	** ''Alligator'' drastically changed the sound from a sort of country-folk mix into an aggressive, more rock-based sound.
91	** Also, ''Boxer'', which added processing to Matt's vocals to make them stand out more, removed backing vocals entirely, put more emphasis on the drums and generally slowed the songs down from Alligator's more frantic pacing.
92	** ''High Violet''. Rather than experimenting with different rock structures and styles, the band opted for a very methodically played out and slow-burning indie rock style.
93	** ''Trouble Will Find Me'' synthesizes the sounds of their preceding two albums. Similar to ''High Violet'', it's slower and more layered than most of their work, however, it greatly dials back the maximalist production that defined several tracks on the previous album ("Terrible Love", "Bloodbuzz Ohio", "Lemonworld", among others), in favor of a sparser approach that emphasizes the drums and vocals, akin to the one on ''Boxer''. Furthermore, the album also places more emphasis on [[UncommonTime unconventional time signatures]] and brings the backing vocals to the forefront once more.
94	** ''Sleep Well Beast'' has a larger emphasis on full-band playing and electronic experimentation, striking somewhat of a balance between the sparseness of the last album with the gritty songwriting of their early albums.
95	* PrecisionFStrike: Both "Demons" and "Slipped" makes effective use of this trope.
96	** "Mr. November." ''I won't fuck us over/I'm Mr. November/I'm Mr. November/I won't fuck us over!''
97	* PerishingAltRockVoice: Practically omnipresent in their work, especially from ''Boxer'' onward.
98	* QuestioningTitle: "Where Is Her Head"
99	* RecycledLyrics: A particularly stunning example in "Slow Show", where Matt reuses his lyrics from "29 Years" to conclude the former. It's in a way a nod to how far they came up to that point, as Boxer was essentially the album that broke them into mainstream status. This, of course, would later be cemented by High Violet and Trouble Will Find Me.
100	* RockersSmashGuitars: Matt tends to break his microphones, stands and other stage equipment because he tends to get really invested emotionally in his own performances. He pours out his frustrations on-stage and it apparently helps keep him mentally healthy off-stage.
101	* SelfDeprecation: A staple of Berninger's lyrics.
102	* SelfTitledAlbum: Their debut.
103	* ShoutOut: ''Trouble Will Find Me'' contains references to Music/TheBeatles, Music/{{Nirvana}} ("Don't Swallow the Cap"), Elliot Smith ("Fireproof"), Morrissey ("Pink Rabbits") and Music/ViolentFemmes ("Hard to Find").
104	* SopranoAndGravel: One of the rare examples where the vocals sound more gritty than the instruments, and also with a male vocalist. He frequently utilizes very quiet, subdued, and [[EchoingAcoustics heavily reverberated]] tenor and falsetto parts in the backing vocals creating a similar effect to this.
105	** This is also quite prevalent on several tracks on ''Trouble Will Find Me''. Berninger functions as the Gravel, while the Soprano part is fulfilled by several different backing vocalists.
106	* SpokenWordInMusic: "Walk It Back" on ''Sleep Well Beast'' samples one of the staffers (reported to be Karl Rove, who denies being the quote's originator; Music/LisaHannigan provided the vocals) of the UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush White House.
107	--> "People like you are still living in what we call the reality-based community. You believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality. That's not the way the world really works anymore. We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you are studying that reality - judiciously, as you will - we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors, and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do." Apparently that was written on a whiteboard with a red sharpie in the Roosevelt bedroom, sometime around Christmas 2007. Yeah, so I can't stay..."
108	* StealthSequel: A possible interpretation of "You Had Your Soul With You" (written by Berninger's wife, Carin), to "Don't Swallow The Cap".
109	* TriumphantReprise: The ending of "Slow Show" borrows a lyric from an earlier song titled "29 Years" ("You know I dreamed about you for 29 years before i saw you"). However, whereas the original lyric was sung in a melancholic and weary fashion, the reprised version is considerably more emotive and hopeful sounding.
110	* UncommonTime: "Demons" is in 7/8 time. "I Should Live In Salt" is in 9/8. "Hard to Find" is in 5/4.
111	** "Fake Empire" is in 3/2.
112	* WordSaladLyrics: Yep. Matt has even stated himself that he just lines up clever phrases he made up in his head.
113	* YouCantGoHomeAgain: Seems to be one of the {{Running Theme}}s of ''I Am Easy To Find'':
114	** Gets more or less name dropped in "Not In Kansas": "I can't go back there anymore / Since alt-right opium went viral."
115	** The first song on the album, "You Had Your Soul With You", also has, [[WhamLine "You have no idea how hard I died when you left."]]

Context Music / TheNational