My 34th Favorite Song of All-Time

Click here to read about this list, or click here to see all previous entries.

…and my 34th favorite song of all-time is:

“Terrible Love” by The National

The National have appeared previously on the list, at number 76 with “Lemonworld”.  I don’t know what else to say about the band in general (who have really morphed over the past year into one of my absolute favorite band; top 5 for sure), but I was recently looking at the CD case for their album  High Violet, and there are some “blurbs” from music critics on it that I thought summed up my thoughts about them quite well.  So I will type some of them here:

“High Violet is the sound of a band taking a mandate to be a meaningful rock band seriously.”

“That’s The National’s insidious brilliance: no other band makes dark and stormy seem like ideal weather.”

“High Violet locates the sweet spot between majesty and mopery, catharsis and wallowing, soaring grace.”

“A seductive collection of subtly surging anti-anthems.”

High Violet was one of the first CDs I bought after moving to Erie.  I had never heard a National song but had read a ton about them.  I saw High Violet prominently displayed in Best Buy and decided to go for it.  The first track on the album is “Terrible Love” and I was immediately hooked.  You may remember I used it as a driving factor in this classic blog entry.  The song (and the whole album), although they really are terribly sad songs, really elicit some of the more pleasant feelings in me that I can imagine.  The version I’ve included here is the live version that I’ve probably watched on YouTube a hundred times.  Seriously, you’ve got to watch this whole video.  Especially in the live setting, this song builds from a slow, contemplative dirge into a fearsome, blistering freight train.