Wine Tasting with The National

If you’ve ever listened to The National before, you might have taken note of their gloominess. These are not typically happy guys. Singer Matt Berninger often sounds so broken, you wonder how the rest of the band were able to peel him off the floor next to the toilet. Mood-builders and twins Aaron and Bryce Dessner build a powerful grey wall of sound for Berninger’s words to lean up against as they slowly spill out of his mouth like teeth in a bad dream.

Though, and this is important, The National are rarely ever unlistenable. Sure, there are some caustic tunes, especially on the earlier albums. But overall, listening to The National is a pleasant occasion, even if the music suggests sorrow. You’re in the moment, enduring Berninger’s pain as he walks with the quiet company of spiders on “Terrible Love.” You feel his desperation when he promises, “I’m Mr. November! I won’t fuck us over!” in a hearty bark. You seethe with him as he wails that “a voice is swallowing” his soul, that he’s “afraid of everyone.”