I read an article that was interviewing The National as they were finishing this song (Lemonworld). It made it sound like the band were pretty much fed up with making it, and went with something they weren’t totally happy with, and if I had read the article before hearing the song, I would have been like “I’ll make sure to skip that one.”
Except that “Lemonworld” is the best song on High Violet! That album, while I admit it is growing very slowly on me, feels a little less than Boxer. I mean, it’s great, and it sounds really good (for the most part), but the whole sort of “upper middle class white dude woe” thing kind of wears out it’s welcome by the time you get to “Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks” (I mean, what is that even about anyways!?).
But there in the middle of that album was “Lemonworld,” a chugging little romp through a blasé asshole’s summer vacation. But for some reason, this dude doesn’t come off as an asshole. It’s probably the only time on the album they succeed at making you relate to the character, instead of (at best) pitying them. I don’t know why— is it the arrangement? The driving yet low-key drums? The “do do dododododo”? The line “I want to stay in and die?”
All of the above, certainly, but in the wake of this tumultuous summer, the line “I want to stay in and die” resonates more than it ever should have. It once came on at random at work and i exclaimed “this is my JAM!” Everyone was sort of worried about me after that (but I was the token “wierdo” anyways, so it didn’t really matter.)
RIP 2010, you won’t be missed, and “Lemonworld” is your eulogy.
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