2019 Contenders: Hard To Lose

I find it very difficult to explain why I like The National as they don't fall into any of the easy to define categories that characterise most of my musical interests these days. They don't write story songs; their lyrics are obscure, at times frustratingly so, but occasionally spring surprising images or ideas on the listener that stick in your head like hooks. But there's nothing I particularly relate to or laugh at or even sing along to in Matt Berninger's lyrics, and normally songwriters like that (of whom there are a growing number these days) get short shrift from me.

Musically they're not an obvious choice for me either. They're not country or indie or singer-songwritery soft rock... which, you know, Mid-Life Musical Crisis should be the name of this blog these days. I'm not really sure how to define the band, but there is something quite contemporary in the production which would hold little appeal if it came from other artists.

One thing I can pinpoint is that I do like Berninger's voice, even when I don't know what the hell he's on about. Although, here comes another potential fly in the ointment: that voice gets rather sidelined on The National's latest album as Berninger welcomes on board a raft of female guest vocalists, including Sharon Van Etten and Kate Stables from This Is The Kit.

All that said, I've been listening to I Am Easy To Find for a good few months now, on and off, and I've yet to grow tired of it. It kind of washes over me, and I've come to realise that lyrically, Berninger belongs to the same school as Bowie... or Michael Stipe. That's most obvious on my favourite track (one which is crammed full of those frustrating lyrical hooks... and curiously even namechecks R.E.M.). The album version isn't available on youtube for some reason, but this is a pretty decent live take...