Tear Jerker / The National

• They don't have very many of these before Boxer. However, from Alligator, the tracks "Daughters of the Soho Riots", "Val Jester", "All the Wine" and "The Geese of Beverly Road" are potential tearjerkers.
  • "City Middle" should get special mention, given that it's about alcoholism, depression and the use of alcohol to escape reality. It's so sad, apparently, that when an audience member requested the song at a live show, Matt responded by saying, "That's a really beautiful song and these guys play it really, really well, but I just can't because... it makes me too fucking sad." Make of that what you will.
  • "90 Mile Waterwall" from Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers. That violin solo probably won't help much either.
• "Fake Empire", "Racing Like A Pro" and "Gospel" off Boxer.
  • The one-two punch of "Green Gloves" followed by "Slow Show" definitely qualifies. The former deals with growing apart from ones friends, and the narrator wishing that he or she could be close to them again. The later deals with social anxiety and a desire for approval and romantic companionship. Needless to say, these two tracks can really hit home for those who've suffered from any form of social anxiety or alienation.
• The gloomy, slow burning track "Sorrow" off of High Violet definitely qualifies, Richard Reed Parry's backing vocals at the end of the track are the icing on the cake.
  • Off of that same album, "Anyone's Ghost" "Little Faith", "Afraid Of Everyone", "Runaway", and "Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks" also qualify for this trope.
  • "Bloodbuzz Ohio", too, but mostly due to the amount of emotion it manages to pack into just 4 minutes.
  • This particular verse from "Little Faith":
    Don't be bitter, Anna, I know how you think
    You're waiting for Radio City to sink
    You'll find commiseration in everyone's eyes
    The storm will suck the pretty girls into the sky
• Practically every song on Trouble Will Find Me is melancholic, but special mentions have to go to "Fireproof", "Heavenfaced", "Graceless", "Slipped", "I Need My Girl", "Pink Rabbits" and "Hard To Find".
  • From "Pink Rabbits":
  It wasn't like a rain, it was more like a sea. I didn't ask for this pain, it just came over me.
  You didn't see me, I was falling apart. I was a television version of a person with a broken heart.
  • From Graceless:
  You can't imagine how much I hate this.
  • The last two minutes of "This Is The Last Time" are incredible and DEVASTATING.
• Sleep Well Beast's opening track "Nobody Else Will Be There", is a very bittersweet-sounding piano piece featuring one of Matt's most heartfelt vocal performances. There's really something about the way he sings the chorus that gives the listener a sense of loneliness and, at the same time, comfort.
  • "Guilty Party" is surprisingly bleak, with it's lyrics describing what seems to be a failing relationship that the protagonist is aware is beyond the point of saving. The following track, "Carin at the Liquor Store", continues this narrative, putting the relationship in a much more sorrowful light.
• Their EP track "About Today" is also deserving of mention. Especially the version that they contributed to the Warrior soundtrack.
• "Exile Vilify" qualifies as well.
• The documentary film, Mistaken for Strangers, is filled with undoubtedly saddening moments. However, there is one moment after Matt's brother, Tom, gets fired from the band's crew that truly tugs hard at the heart strings. At this point in the film, Tom is in a state of massive self-doubt and confusion. After he returns home, he is filming a conversation between him and his and Matt's mother, who ends it by saying to Tom: "I always thought you were my most talented child."
• "You Had Your Soul With You", especially with the Reality Subtext of being written by Matt Berninger's wife Carin.
  I have owed it to my heart, every word that I've said. You have no idea how hard I died when you left.
  I got it worse than anyone else and I just can't find a way to forgive myself. I had only one thing left and I couldn't see it yet.
• "Not in Kansas" from I Am Easy To Find has a lot, mostly for its pessimistic outlook on the world:
  Ohio's in a downward spiral, I can't go back there anymore since alt-right opium went viral. I am not in Kansas, where I am I don't know where.
  It's half your fault so half forgive me.
  My shadow's getting shorter, I'm a child at the border. Oh, Godmother, you can't ignore us, there isn't anybody else left to love us.
• "So Far So Fast":
  You went running right into it...away from me.
  Don't you know someday somebody will come and find you? If you don't know who you are anymore, they will remind you.
• "New Order T-Shirt" from First Two Pages Of Frankenstein overflows with bittersweet nostalgia, in a way that can really bring the tears.