Album Rating: 5.0

None of the themes in HV are uplifting imo. Tracks like Bloodbuzz and Lemonworld could be upbeat but I still find the lyrics to be at least quite sad in a way. Not to mention the first five tracks which are just downright heartbreaking

Album Rating: 4.5

Even Bloodbuzz Ohio



I never thought about love when I thought about home...

Album Rating: 4.2

Agreed with Freddie and the first part of benkim's post, Terrible Love and Lemonworld are also among their most upbeat.



Pretty much all their lyrics are depressing, not just on HV

Album Rating: 4.5

Lemonworld is him trying to escape

Album Rating: 5.0

I don't have the drugs to sort...



I die everytime he says that.



You can actually say the despair here is a bit more subtle than usual with a lot more imagery being used but the picture it paints is quite bleak!

Album Rating: 5.0

I dont find Terrible Love upbeat at all! And I can't fall asleep... without a little help



I find that bit together with It takes an ocean not to break quite depressing actually.

Album Rating: 4.2

You're joking right? The end of Terrible Love is the most technical and insane drumming performance of any The National song.

Album Rating: 5.0

All alone I've been describing the lyrics not the music

Album Rating: 4.2

In terms of just lyrics, the most depressing and heartbreaking are on Boxer and HV. They're meant to share a progressing theme of dealing with adulthood that spans their middle albums.

Album Rating: 5.0

Yeah totally agreed. That is I was saying HV is more depressing because in Boxer at least he was facing that with his wife/partner in songs like Fake Empire, Apartment Story and Slow Show with they escaping together in the first two and him having his wife make him feel he isn't that much of a loser as he feels in the world in Slow Show. In HV his wife and now his kids are very much part of his woes!

Album Rating: 4.2

He still has them though in HV like he has someone in Boxer, but Apartment Story clearly shows how he isn't happy at all, even though she's there. They're just sad together haha, none of their stuff is very optimistic, so I guess trying to decide which is most or least or most depressing is pretty pointless.

Album Rating: 4.5

"but Apartment Story clearly shows how he isn't happy at all,"



that's like the the one National song that's optimistic all the way through. it's called "Apartment Story," like, we're all in this together. he doesn't ever mention a specific apartment or even building or anything, but he does mention a lot of different universal feelings. and he links it all together with the "apartment." kinda reinforces it too with "stay inside 'til somebody finds us." and the climax is when he says "so worry not, all things are well..." it's like the ultimate feel-good song imo, because it doesn't shy away from what's making us feel not good. hope i'm making at least some sense here

Album Rating: 4.2

I don't know if optimistic is the word. Apartment Story is probably my favorite song by this band, and is in general extremely emotional and very personal to me ever since I heard it. The lyrics on the surface are about going out with his girlfriend on some obligatory social event.

The real core of it ties in to these middle albums overall themes of adjusting to adulthood, and all the feelings and realities that come with it. Apartment Story explores how he and his girlfriend used to have carefree, happy lives when they were younger, and now that they're older, they have adult obligations to deal with and it's very mortalizing (if that's a real word).

That's how I remember it anyway, it's been a while since I've jammed much from this band. I should change that soon.

Album Rating: 4.5

yeah you could call it adult obligations, i think you could blow it up even bigger if you wanted tho. the things we want when we're adults reflect who we are as humans. the things we want, and the things that happen to us: "everything we did believe is diving off the balcony..." i really believe it's a song about how great things are, and how much greater they could be if we all just loved each other the way we do our loved ones. and i mean "how great things are," like, all being well in the universe. the way the song opens up when he says "so worry not..." just sounds so huge to me. it matches that universal sentiment



i feel like we're basically on the same page here haha

Album Rating: 4.2

Definitely on the first thing you just said; though I've always felt that "everything we did believe is diving off the balcony..." is part of how all their young, naive hopes and wishes are down the drain now that they're now older and jaded and less free to do whatever they want, like watching TV all day, hugging the stereo, staying away from everyone else for long periods of time, all those specifics in the lyrics.

What you mentioned about how great things are is very possible though now that I'm re-reading, especially at the end. Though it could also be ironic, since he's talking about how they're good looking and have perfume on, and that's what gives them social stature and conformity now among their peers and fellow adults. Who knows, his lyrics are always pretty cryptic, usually in the best of ways.

Album Rating: 4.5

yeah you definitely have a point there. tbh i guess it kinda went over my head how the verses are all details about him and the girl; i always just kinda took it as him talking about everybody. but you're definitely right there. it's definitely focusing on the changes from kid to adult. maybe when he says "we have our looks and perfume on," he's giving that perfume another meaning. like, it's a symbol of pointless grown-up conformity, but at the same time, you smell good. and you're presentable. so you might as well just ride that out. "we'll be alright." it's kind of the ultimate irony in a way



and this is all definitely about humans. and yet the song is called Apartment Story. which really leads me to think he's making a statement about the place we're in, and how all this shit was and is always going to happen as long as we're in this same "apartment."

Album Rating: 4.2

That makes a lot of sense, I at least hope that the end is meant to be hopeful about their situation, and see that growing up isn't all bad haha. I'm probably entering that stage of life within a couple years so it's hard not to relate it to how I feel about the subject as well.

I'm pretty lost on the apartment part, it probably has more significance than I'm addressing and you're covering it pretty accurately most likely. It might be like their rut, being part of the sadness of losing that carefree lifestyle of youth they used to have maybe. They probably don't have the freedom to move somewhere else; overall it's hard to find a happy meaning relating to the apartment.

Album Rating: 5.0

oh dear I always interpreted that to be the saddest one. I thought it represented the death of their ideals during adulthood and getting sucked into the mundane nature of it. It kinda represents in a nutshel what he's been sad about all this time.

Album Rating: 5.0

I do like how you explain the perfume bit and put it in a positive light though

Album Rating: 4.5

i always saw the "we have our looks and perfume on" line as something thats supposed to sound shallow. like the character saying it is putting value in physical appearance and things that decay as you get older. but because of that it also sounds like a "all we have is now" kind of line, because the character sounds young and fairly bright eyed, which will all go away eventually.