Eh, I find the best songs are at the back of the album. The run from I’ll Still Destroy You to Dark Side of the Gym is phenomenal though. Closer is just there for me, which I know is a hot take
I Am Easy to Find is probably one of my favorites at this point, pretty much everything about it works for me even if I understand the criticisms
I think I’d take “Day I Die,” “The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness,” and the entire stretch from “Empire Line” to the end of the record over my favorite song from IAETF. ♂️
SWB + IAETF are National at their best as songwriters and artists. This next one could be A+ if they keep on this track and just tighten things up as editors.
I was curious, because I love the album overall, but I don't really care for the song. At all, really.
this seems like a safe space for me to say it I absolutely hate Day I Die, with a passion apart from that for me the biggest hurdle on SWB is the absolutely bizarre tracklist. it definitely has some all-timers on it, but some really rough patches too. between the two I'd listen to IAETF as a full album experience in a heartbeat
While I think swb is a borderline masterpiece and have already expressed my appreciation for iaetf in this thread, so I disagree with you on the rough patches a bit, glad to know I’m not alone in thinking day I die is bad. It sounds like the national parodying the national, which is funny because even bad national is pretty good, but also because swb is otherwise such an absolute breath of fresh air for a band that seemed almost certain to be in the coasting phase of their career at that point.
Day I Die is cool, i like the guitar tone and the drumming. The lyrics are pretty whatever. SWB is my favorite album of theirs.
Not a fan of the pronunciation “the deh-ah-dah” but it slaps live and I’m a huge fan of that little dirty guitar stings/flourishes they snuck into a few of the upbeat songs on SWB. That’s some expert Dessner brother magic, eliciting a lasting burst of energy from 2 seconds of guitar.
I’m also a big Turtleneck defender, which is a song almost all my friends hate lol granted, i mostly like it on the premise that it is a cool live song, but also i just like the National having corny, jittery, loud songs on principle since they’re increasingly buttoned-down.
And whilst we're all in the confessional it seems - I never liked Walk it Back either. A real clunker and a signal to head to the bar whenever they played it live