the national

I made a mistake in my life today
everything I love gets lost in drawers
I want to start over, I want to be winning
way out of sync from the beginning

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

Looking for somewhere to stand and stay
I leaned on the wall and the wall leaned away
Can I get a minute of not being nervous
and not thinking of my dick
My leg is sparkles, my leg is pins
I better get my shit together, better gather my shit in
You could drive a car through my head in five minutes
from one side of it to the other

- Slow Show, The National

Rarely does a new band come into my life and resonate with me very deeply. The National is the latest of that rarity. There are layers of human substance here, some of which I'm beginning to identify - awkward beauty, truthful introspection, poetry, slightly trembling vulnerability. It helps that the lead singer lends his voice with such a naked honesty and lack of self-consciousness to effect very intimate and at times haunting and fragile meditations. The simple and eloquent instrumentation of percussion, strumming guitar, and the occassional piano, can only serve to cradle such meditations, securing them - or more likely exposing them - for our private consumption.

It's now almost 5am and have only 3 or so hours to try to sleep before work and I've been listening to Slow Show over and over for the past few hours. I don't care. I don't remember the last time I've been taken with such compelling sounds to stir in me a compelling mood. I don't care.