#7 The National - Trouble Will Find Me

[Click here for soundtrack]

We've watched Matt Berninger grow into his own with each album. Not just as the frontman of one of the best, most consistent bands out there, but from a 30-something with issues into a family man. His lyrics resonate with the people that were confused and unstable like he was in his younger years, just as much as they do with the people that are confused and unstable while living the family life he's leading now. In a way, he speaks for the man in us all. His introspection is so real that his baritone voice, one of the most recognizable and defining voices in rock, kind of sounds like what you'd expect God to sound like if he were talking from the heavens. While Berninger is the central figure in the National, he's armed with one of the best drummers in the game, the same faces that have been there all along and they just churned out ANOTHER classic in Trouble Will Find Me.

The National's music truly has a linear theme focused around Matt Berninger's life. On 2005's Alligator, we saw a paranoid figure, who had a glimmer of hope for himself, on Boxer, arguably the band's best effort of them all, we were introduced to Berninger's new, more domesticated life. He was growing up, moving in with his girl and becoming quite the dashing creature:

So worry not
All things are well
We'll be alright
We have our looks and perfumeSuch suavity oughta be documented. Loosely political themes still abounded and his madness in both love and semantics trickled through into 2010's High Violet. That was the band's deconstruction album (if you will) and it's conclusion of desire and will to move forward with building a life, can be summed up in one lyric from "Anyone's Ghost":

Didn't want to be your ghost
Didn't want to be anyone's ghost

But I don't want anybody else
I don't want anybody elseNow why do i spend this much time re-capping The National's path up to this point before i even get into the album we're REALLY here to talk about? This is my attempt to catch up the folks who haven't followed this band through the most important part of their discography, because if you have, Trouble Will Find Me is a gift. It's the same type of reward that fans of HBO's The Wire were given for sticking through Season 2. This album is a beautiful culmination of the life of the man whose every word we've listened, loved, felt, danced and breathed to. It's that part of The Truman Show when he finally breaks free and lives on with the girl. But this is hardly an ending for The National. On the album's first single, "Don't Swallow the Cap," Bryan Devendorf's drums set the pace and Berninger opens up a story of arriving at home in the morning after a long night:

Tiny bubbles hang above me
It's a sign that someone loves meThere's so much imagery here. The bubbles referring to those blown by his 2 year old daughter, but also the bubbles over his head, like a cartoon character who's dazed and drunk. Picture a crooked smile on his face as he walks in to see his beautiful child. But he still lives his life on both ends of the spectrum. After all, he IS arriving home in the wee hours of the morning

There's a degree of whimsy in much of this album. Take the video for "Sea of Love," which is an homage to a classic video by 80's Russian punk band Zvuki Mu. My favorite part is watching Bryan Devendorf pound away on a single snare drum for the entire video. There's something special about watching the proficient doing the mundane. Devendorf is in a class by himself on the drums. If Berninger wasn't so damn good, he'd be the star of every song. Listen to "Graceless." The moment the song opens, Devendorf is driving it's rhythm. There's sparsely the need for a drawn out intro with him in the mix. This might be the most lyrically rich track on the album too. While Berninger debates the science of faith and happiness, he never loses his wit:

I am not my rosy self
Left my roses on my shelf
Take the white ones, they're my favorite
It's the side effects that save us
GraceThere were so many gems to pick from in this song, but "it's the side effects that save us" takes the cake. The humanity of modern man's decision to live the medicated life and the beautifully snarky likening of your wife and children to "side effects." This is amazing songwriting and exploration of very candid and difficult themes. But of course, it takes a mature songwriter to arrive at these types of ideas. The man we've been following for so long is experiencing it all and bringing us along for the ride. He's no longer alone and in fact admits, "I Need My Girl."

Socrates said that "the unexamined life is not worth living." So what of the life that is examined at your expense in front of others? Berninger is seemingly his own psychologist and we can all find a part of ourselves in him. He leaves us on "Humiliation" with:

Tunnel vision lights my way
Leave a little life todayHe leaves us with more of his life than we could ever ask for and the "tunnel vision" is what makes it so damn interesting to follow along. This is hands down one of the best bands in the world, who just keeps churning out quality album after quality album. While i wonder if it will ever stop, something tells me that The National will go down as one of the defining bands of our generation (if they aren't already.)
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#6 is due up tomorrow!