Thoughts On The National’s “First Two Pages of Frankenstein”

Over the National’s last five albums, Matt Berninger has come to rely more and more heavily on a specific lyrical formula.

I was doing something random and specific/

You were doing something even more random (with too many syllables)/

Sardonic question?

It practically writes itself.

I was selling peacocks to priests in Berlin/

You were eating nachos in the dark with Frank Lloyd Wright’s ghost/

Isn’t it nice Christmas only comes once a year?

Or…

I was confessing my sins to broken stoplights on April Fool’s Day/

You were explaining to a telephone psychic that childhood ends the day after your last toy breaks/

Am I better off than I was four years ago?