For the first half of September, I’ll be selecting my Top 15 favorite songs from The National. A band that has rarely let me down — both in the recording studio and in concert. #FaveArtistTop15
After Trouble Will Find Me, The National’s next album Sleep Well Beast felt like a sigh of relief. It represented a return to form. A solid album from top to bottom with varying themes, instrumentation and tempo. My personal feeling about Trouble Will Find Me is that it felt like The National was trying to make it work. But Sleep Well Beast just felt naturally The National. “Guilty Party” is one of my favorite tracks off the album. While it feels like a quintessential National track, it also sounds nothing like else they’ve recorded before.
The things that make The National so distinct and so good are all present on this record. For starters, there’s Matt Berninger’s wonderful and personal way with words. On “Guilty Party”, like so many other National songs, his lyrics are written and sung in such an authentic, unpretentious manner. They feel real. And the words are accompanied by those sparse moments of instrumentation that the band has become known for. Rarely heavy-handed or excessive, The National found all the right horn accents, synth interludes and Bryan Devendorf’s infectious drumbeats — and ushered them in at all the right moments.
“I say your name. I say I'm sorry. I know it's not working. I'm no holiday. It's nobody's fault. No guilty party. We just got nothing. Nothing left to say.”