The National - I Am Easy To Find (May 17, 2019) Album • Page 19

Oh are we arguing over what their best album is? High Violet all the way lads.

 

Trouble Will Find Me ugh. Has too many of their best songs to not be the best overall.

 

Trouble Will Find Me but they’re all up there.

 

I genuinely think Alligator through SWB are all 10/10 albums, so this is just a matter of degrees, but I’d group them as follows:

Tier 1: Alligator, Boxer, TWFM

Tier 2: High Violet, SWB

Tier 3: SS

Tier 4: s/t

 

so we've reached the bad takes point of the thread, nice

 

The big five change all the time.

Right now it's

SWB
Boxer
Alligator
High Violet
TWFM

SS

S/T

 

but the big five are all #1 and #5 for me. They're all 10s

 

TWFM
High Violet
SWB = Boxer
Sad songs
Alligator
The National

 

Boxer
Alligator
SWB
HV
TWFM

I love all of them like children!!!

 

wait did @zmtr just rank Sad Songs above Alligator

That is...one of the wilder things I've seen on this website and I been here a minute

 

Think right now I’d go

1. SWB
2. Boxer
3. TWFM
4. Alligator
5. High Violet
6. SS
7. S/T

 

I think my current favorite has to be TWFM, but it really changes so much. I slept on that album for a long time but when I finally did connect with it I fell in love with it hard. Boxer was my favorite for a long time, as well as High Violet. SWB hasn't been out long enough but it has only gotten better and better for me over time.

I don't know exactly how to describe the sound, but the electronic flourishes on SWB were a little bit of a turn-off for me at first, only because I tend to love the sound of all of them just playing their instruments, and I think lesser bands sometimes use that kind of thing to mask sub-par songwriting. But I quickly realized neither of these situations applied to SWB.

 

now it's

SWB
TWFM
High Violet
Boxer
Alligator

 

Mine is:
HV
BOXER
SWB
IAETF
TWFM
Alligator
SSFDL
S/t

 

I can’t always have the best takes on this site. It gets exhausting.

 

Haven’t heard the new one yet but aside from that, this is also my ranking

High Violet means a lot to me

 

TWFM
High Violet
Boxer
SWB
Alligator

 

Any of their last five records is the right answer. Hell, I’d even throw in Sad Songs.

 

Boxer/Alligator (depends on the day)
HV
IAETF
SWB
TWFM

The others

 

all y'all sleep on Sad Songs like "Cardinal Song" and "Lucky You" aren't some of their best shit

 

Fashion Coat, Available, Slipping Husband, Lucky You, Cardinal Song, It Never Happened, Murder Me Rachael

all excellent songs

 

Oh yeah it's a great album. Just an 8 or 9 instead of a 10.

 

One day I’d like to see a deep dive about the way Matt used to write about women, though. I feel like there’s a lot of toxic shit in the first half of their career, even in songs i enjoy (like the ones listed above from Sad Songs). Wilco is the same way. I’m glad they’ve evolved, and I’m sure there’s some “warts and all” approach they thought they were taking with those lyrics, but i think sexism in indie rock emboldened a lot of indie dudes (myself included, I’m sure) to have a shitty attitude towards women in ways that took time to un-learn.

 

I love Fashion Coat so much, one of their best choruses tbh

but yeah there's some pretty not-great lines on, say, All Dolled-Up in Straps and the like

 

This changes constantly

Alligator
SWB
HV
Boxer
TWFM
Sad Songs
S/T

Top 5 songs

Lit Up
Conversation 16
City Middle
Slow Show
Graceless