#344 (of 365) "Available" The National

The National was one of my top 5 favorite bands from the late 2000s to ~2020, with a nonstop barrage of "classic" albums - Alligator, Boxer, High Violet, Trouble Will Find Me. Even Sleep Well Beast (2017) was decent. In retrospect, I Am Easy to Find (2019), with its bloated track list (17 songs, over one hour) of slower, more basic music missing the flourishes of their best songs from the late 2000s was a harbinger of things to come. After that release, Matt Berninger did some lackluster solo work and then they released two full-length albums in 2023 that were objectively horrible. Not just bad, like really bad. Like one or two decent tracks and a load of crap. Maybe their music changed, maybe my interest changed. It's not uncommon, as I've mentioned, for me to fall out of love with bands I was a huge fan of as they go into their second or third decade of recording music (everyone from U2 and The Cure to Modest Mouse or Bright Eyes). And typically my interest in their older stuff wanes at the same time. But The National dropped from a Top 5 band to "ehh, I used to like them" as fast as any band I can remember.

Long story short, only four tracks by The National have made this chart, which is still impressive I guess, comparatively speaking. Most bands in the history of music have no songs! 

"Available" - The National // Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers (2003)