hi, friends. this is an essay about The National’s new album. The National are my favorite band, which I’ve written about previously-- if you’ve never listened to them and don’t know what their whole deal is, that essay is likely a better intro than this one, although you can definitely read and get stuff out of this one if you’ve never listened to their music, have no intention of ever doing so, or have never even heard of them until right now. I meant to send this on Father’s Day, but then it kind of got away from me, so here we are. Pieces of this are part of something larger that I’m working on, so if it seems a little fragmented or incoherent or not fully pulled-together yet, that’s why. Anyway, here’s my favorite band. cw: dads, divorce (this sounds like I’m kidding, but genuinely, a lot of this is about dads and divorce and I know those topics aren’t the easiest for many people).
I’m just reading this now, thanks for linking it in your newsletter. It’s glorious. And correct. I listened to the National for years in a vacuum (strangely, one semi adjacent to the band: my ex-roommate’s ex-roommate in Red Hook is Ada from the song), so it was a complete shock to me when I saw them live in Boston -- I’ve never seen so many brewski bros at a sad bastard concert! Backwards hats, tallboys, scream-singing along with MY OWN PERSONAL SONGS that I, a twice-divorced lady, also heavily identified with. It blew my mind, I’m telling you. This essay would have cleared up so much!
I’m just reading this now, thanks for linking it in your newsletter. It’s glorious. And correct. I listened to the National for years in a vacuum (strangely, one semi adjacent to the band: my ex-roommate’s ex-roommate in Red Hook is Ada from the song), so it was a complete shock to me when I saw them live in Boston -- I’ve never seen so many brewski bros at a sad bastard concert! Backwards hats, tallboys, scream-singing along with MY OWN PERSONAL SONGS that I, a twice-divorced lady, also heavily identified with. It blew my mind, I’m telling you. This essay would have cleared up so much!