great question. going chronological cos ordering is a whole different beast: Cardinal Song Lucky You (Daytrotter) All the Wine Geese Mr November Mistaken for Strangers Slow Show Lemonworld Conversation 16 Don't Swallow the Cap This is the Last Time Pink Rabbits Guilty Party Quiet Light So Far So Fast Rylan
Pink Rabbits I'll Still Destroy You Slow Show Afraid of Everyone The Geese of Beverly Road Mistaken for Strangers Sea of Love I Am Easy to Find Conversation 16 Guilty Party Bloodbuzz Ohio Quiet Light Terrible Love The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness Secret Meeting
I have a feeling I’m just going to be looking at every one of these lists and thinking that’s a good list over and over again
The Perfect Song About Today All the Wine Mr. November Fake Empire Apartment Story Mistaken for Strangers Terrible Love (alt version) England Conversation 16 This is the Last Time Graceless Pink Rabbits I'll Still Destroy You I Am Easy to Find Rylan
favorite lyrics / lines from this album at this time. not necessarily how they were sung or the music that accompanies them, but just the writing itself: "I'm not afraid of being alone, I just don't know what to do with my time" "I'm not that spiritual I still go out all the time to department stores" "I know I can get attached and then unattached to my own versions of others" "Sometimes I don't think I'm really around here half the time, sometimes I don't think I'm really around here at all" "Don't you know someday somebody will come and find you? If you don't know who you are anymore, they will remind you" "Underwater you're almost free" "there's a little bit of hell in everyone"
"I will love you like there's razors in it" / "there's never really any safety in it" one of my faves
"There's never really any safety in it" is probably my favorite line and delivery on the album. Even though I have no idea what it means, I love "there are police in the museum" because it's delivered in such a cool way.
yeah, there's a lot of lines that i like the delivery on but can't say they're a favorite or that they mean anything to me because i have no idea what it's supposed to mean and it just ends up making me more confused than anything else lol
I love that line. Even without knowing what it’s actually alluding to, it conjures up some striking imagery in my mind.
Funnily enough, I saw the Smith exhibit honoring Maplethorpe at the Cincinnati Modern Art museum (might be butchering the actual name of it) in 2013 while on a week long Reds watching trip. I knew the Patti/Robert connection but didn’t know about the obscenity law issues that that line is referencing.
This album is such a grower that I’ve upped it from “Perfect 10/10 - the Nationals 6th best album” to “Perfect 10/10 - the Nationals 4th best album”
The way Matt is referring to California on Rylan is definitely in the vain he uses “Californians” in All the Wine and I love shit like that
While we're talking about delivery and lyrics - I really enjoy Matt's delivery accompanied by the music at this part in "The Pull of You" "Maybe we'll talk it out inside a car With rain falling around us We all know this rain is hard to take" Not my favorite song on the record but that could be my favorite moment.
I think this is a major step up from Sleep Well Beast, which I do like but I just find this album to be better in quality. On par with their best work no doubt.