Best Songs Of 2010 #10

The National – Lemonworld

“You and your sister live in a lemonworld, I want to sit in and die.”

I find it very difficult to believe that this track hasn’t got more attention. It seems like it has been lost amongst the other tracks of The National’s stunning 2010 album ‘High Violet’, and in fact it is one of the few songs on this album that the band do not play live.

I have no idea why, because Lemonworld is a mesmerising song that is easily my favourite track The National have done since ‘Boxer’. Apparently the band went through hundreds of versions of the song during the recording process, struggling to get that one incarnation that sounded right and fit in with the rest of the album.

We all know The National are perfectionists, and according to the band they were close to scrapping the track entirely before they decided on this version, which ironically was one of the first forms of the song they tried. And I’m very pleased they did, because from the moment I first listened to ‘High Violet’ all the way thorough, lying on my bed with my eyes closed and the New York Times stream open on my laptop, this was the song that really stood out.

There’s something almost cathartic about hearing Matt Berringer singing “Doo doo doo doo doo”, considering that he always seems to be so careful with his enunciation and choice of words. However the song is not without the typical brooding and mysterious style of The National, and ultimately it is the combination of the familiar and the new that make this so enthralling to listen to.

Please play it live?