Practically alone among the rock bands of the early 2000s, the National is still going strong with its particular brand of melancholy, brooding guitar rock and sharp suits. Much of their continued success can be attributed to the eternal appeal of the self-loathing poetry of singer Matt Berninger and their base audience turning into depressed dads, but whatever works, man. Like a finely aging wine that is presumably all for someone, The National have only gotten bigger in both its sound and popularity over the years, so we figured now was as good a time as any to make a definitive ranking of all their albums.
9. I Am Easy to Find (2019)
First things first, is “I Am Easy to Find” even really a National album? Sure, all the standard mope-rock elements are there and the usual suspects are performing, but the band’s eighth album seems less like an enthusiastic effort and more like an attempt to address criticism. After years of The National being accused of being too bro-focused, they recruited Sharon Van Etten, and a slew of other female singers to basically drown out their usual vocalist, and finally gave Matt Berninger’s wife Carin Besser some lyric credits. Not to mention the whole album seemed more like a reason to get filmmaker Mike Mills (no, not the R.E.M. guy) to make a conceptual film about Alicia Vikander playing a woman in every stage of her life. We get it guys, you have a feminine side too.
Play It Again: “Roman Holiday”
Skip It: “I Am Easy to Find” (not often that a title track is the most interminable, but here we are)
8. Self-Titled (2001)
The National’s self-titled album is essentially everything that would someday make the band world-conquering depressives, but with training wheels on. For some reason, “The National” often gets tagged as being somehow adjacent to the alternative country wave that included Whiskeytown and Uncle Tupelo, which just goes to show the lengths people will go to when they listen to Ryan Adams too much. But the album is really simply a collection of embryonically interesting tracks without the lush production the Dessner brothers would soon develop. Just listen to “29 Years” and compare it to the magnificent future track “Slow Show,” and you’ll see how the seeds sprouted.
Play It Again: “American Mary”
Skip It: “Bitters & Absolut”
7. Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers (2003)
For the second album, The National brought Bryce Dessner aboard as a full-time member, solidifying the line-up of two sets of brothers plus Matt Berninger (which must feel kind of weird for the singer). Just as importantly, producer Peter Katis began working with the band, smoothing out the clunkier edges of the debut and injecting a sonic depth that was sorely needed. Although Berninger still occasionally breaks out into screams on “Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers,” it’s also their sleepiest, most meandering album, which is why it’s hanging out here at #7.
Play It Again: “Cardinal Song”
Skip It: “Trophy Wife”
6. Sleep Well Beast (2017)
By 2017, The National had pretty much established themselves as one of the premier rock bands of their generation and a go-to for every middle-aged dad with two bourbons and a regret chaser in his belly. So where to go from there? “Sleep Well Beast” answers that by basically adding some electronic frills to the established formula of distorted guitars, piano, and Bryan Devendorf’s underrated, deceptively complex drums. As a victory lap, it’s a decent album, though it doesn’t quite reach the heights the band once did. Still, listen to the Leonard Cohen homage “Dark Side of the Gym” and tell us melancholy isn’t delicious.
Play It Again: “The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness”
Skip It: “Walk It Back” (George W. Bush, guys? Really? In 2017?)
5. First Two Pages of Frankenstein (2023)
We’re as surprised as anyone that the National’s most recent album is their strongest in years, especially after the confused “I Am Easy to Find,” Matt Berninger’s solo album, and the Dessner brothers having been cursed by an angry witch to collaborate with Taylor Swift until they repent. But “First Two Pages of Frankenstein” has some of the band’s most moving and delicate melodies (particularly the opening “Once Upon A Poolside”) and a focus the band has been missing for some time. Sure, it might be the single worst title an album has ever had, but this is an unquestionable return to form.
Play It Again: “New Order T-Shirt”
Skip It: “This Isn’t Helping”
4. Trouble Will Find Me (2013)
The Pet Shop Boys’ Neil Tennant once defined a band’s “imperial phase” as the moment when a group’s artistic and commercial zeniths occur simultaneously; basically, it’s when a bunch of musicians working together can’t seem to do wrong. “Trouble Will Find Me” is the tail end of the National’s own imperial phase, a powerful, expertly painful set of tracks that feature some of Matt Berninger’s most playful turns of phrase (“Pink Rabbits), the band’s most Romantically dreamy music (“Hard to Find,”) and depths of feeling )“I Need My Girl.”) Any band would be lucky for this to be their best album, and it’s only at #4 for the National.
Play It Again: “Sea of Love”
Skip It: “Fireproof”
3. Alligator (2005)
The creative leap forward that the National made with the third album is simply astounding, by any measure. After two fitfully interesting, mostly fine albums, the band abruptly released “Alligator,” which announces its resplendent weirdness immediately with the queasy guitar lines and chant-like backing vocals of “Secret Meeting.” From there, it’s the gloriously impressionistic, horny poetry of “Karen” to the winsomeness of “Daughters of Soho Riots” to the fractured anthem rock of “All the Wine” and “Mr. November.” Things just snapped into place for The National with this one, and no one could call them country rock ever again.
Play It Again: “Karen”
Skip It: “The Geese of Beverly Road”
2. High Violet (2010)
The buzzing, atmospheric guitar tone of “Terrible Love” that opens “High Violet” is somehow bold, elegiac, and hopeful, all at once. In fact, that could probably describe the National as a band, which makes their 2010 album quite nearly their artistic apex. “High Violet” reveals the National as operating from a place of complete confidence, even if Matt Berninger’s lyrics, as ever, dwell on self-doubt and despair. However, he also reaches some of his greatest moments of transcendent, profound absurdity with lines like “I was carried to Ohio in a swarm of bees” (“Bloodbuzz Ohio”) or “Go out at night/ With your headphones on again/ And walk through/ The Manhattan valleys of the dead” (“Anyone’s Ghost). Plus, if you think the band doesn’t have a sense of humor, just listen to that line about eating brains again.
Play It Again: “Bloodbuzz Ohio”
Skip It: “England”
1. Boxer (2007)
“Boxer” is simply a perfect album, the true sign of a band that has worked out all the kinks and knows exactly what sound fits them. The yearning, fantastically bucolic “Fake Empire” ascends into a clamor of horns; “Mistaken for Strangers” intensifies the alienated frustration that permeates every song they had previously written; “Slow Show” basically codifies the band’s definitive statement: “Can I get a minute of not being nervous/ And not thinking of my dick?” “Boxer” is the band’s greatest moment of cultural relevance, basically soundtracking the cultural paranoia of the mid-00s, while also being the perfect primer for anyone who wants to listen to five white guys make some super-sad music.
Play It Again: Jesus, take your pick.
Skip It: Nope.