Monday, January 14, 2008

You could drive a car through my head in five minutes

If you’re like me, you can get hooked on a song and listen to it over and over again, listening for its every nuance. Right now, I’m in love with "Slow Show" by The National from The Boxer. I listened to it 5 times on my way to work. This is why headphones exist—so no one else has to listen to your latest musical obsession on repeat.

Why this song? There are a lot of reasons. First off, the lyrics are beautiful, but not without an edge. When Matt Berninger sings the chorus, “I wanna hurry home to you / put on a slow, dumb show for you / and crack you up / so you can put a blue ribbon on my brain / god I'm very, very frightening / I'll overdo it,” he captures the sweetness and urgency of a relationship. Also, like the entire album, the instrumentation and arrangement of the song is great. The music and the lyrics work together perfectly. And the last major piece for me is the harmony vocal. This song would not nearly be as good, with out the lovely harmony vocal in the song.

Here are a few ways to hear the song.

During a World Café Interview

Live at the 9:30 Club from NPR’s All Songs Considered Concert Series


And a live video

2 comments:

Jupiter said...

I have been meaning to check them out. Paste Magazine named them Band of 2007 and I was unnerved that I had never heard of them (I'm usually on top of that sort of thing!:P). So, thanks for the further push to check them out :)

Dynamic Meter said...

I resisted this album for a while. But as soon as I got it, I loved it.

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