Rating: Each Album by The Nationwide from Worst to Greatest

The Nationwide flip 20 this yr. Take a second to replicate on that. Of all of the indie rock bands to emerge from New York Metropolis on the flip of the millennium, just a few have aged as gracefully because the Brooklyn-via-Cincinnati quintet. Give it some thought: The Strokes, Interpol, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs are almost 20 years faraway from their instant-classic debuts, and you may rely on one hand the variety of actually nice albums they’ve launched thereafter. The Nationwide have a powerful (and arguably successful) challenger in Vampire Weekend, and one other in LCD Soundsystem, which raises the query of whether or not or not New York’s finest indie rock bands are even rock bands.

(Learn: Did Vampire Weekend Win the Indie Rock Age?)

If The Nationwide sound like a rock band, it’s nearly solely because of the brothers Dessner (Aaron and Bryce, each guitarists) and Devendorf (Scott on the bass, Bryan on the drums), as a result of frontman Matt Berninger doesn’t sing about what different rock bands sing about. Whereas Julian Casablancas, Paul Banks, and Karen O spun vivid tales of debauchery after darkish, Berninger sings about extra relatable issues — failing relationships, unfulfilling workplace jobs, and crippling hangovers. You’re associates with the characters that inhabit these songs, for those who’re not already certainly one of them.

(Purchase: Tickets to Upcoming Nationals Exhibits)

If that makes The Nationwide “boring” — an epithet that’s been lobbed on the band because the starting — it’s additionally the key to their longevity. Listening to Is This It, Activate the Brilliant Lights, and Fever to Inform, it’s virtually an upset that the blokes who made The Nationwide went on to supply among the most rewarding, affecting music of the 2000s. To rejoice the band’s 20 years, in addition to the discharge of their latest work, I Am Simple to Discover, we’ve revisited and ranked The Nationwide’s eight albums. (Which means we’re leaving off just a few of their most interesting songs: “Exile Vilify”, the Cherry Tree EP’s “About At the moment”, and their cowl of the Grateful Lifeless’s “Morning Dew”.) In case you’ve but to take an uninnocent, elegant fall into the band’s discography, we’ve bought you lined.

-Jacob Nierenberg
Contributing Author

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08. The Nationwide (2001)

“So Shocked You Wish to Dance with Me Now” (Greatest Reside Music): The Nationwide seldom play any tracks reside from their first album, however “Chilly Lady Fever” is a tune that might make for a pleasant shock amid the band’s extra fashionable materials. Much like “Lovely Head,” “Chilly Lady Fever” was predictive in that it comprises many songwriting components The Nationwide are recognized for. It has Berninger’s crooning perspective and intelligent lyrics and even some synth experimentation seen on later albums corresponding to Sleep Effectively Beast and I Am Simple to Discover. Together with a tune like this on their upcoming tour would sonically make sense, and it’d be a reward for these following the band since their origins.

“I’ll Clarify The whole lot to the Geeks” (Basic Evaluation): The Nationwide’s self-titled debut, whereas not by any means a foul report, was extra of an embryonic stage for the band than a definitive one. Throughout this period, the Cincinnati quintet (then a quartet, Bryce Dessner wasn’t a member but), was nonetheless figuring out its sound. The Nationwide is brimming with alt-country, an affect that’s nowhere to be seen on albums corresponding to Boxer or Alligator. Although few followers have possible given this album a radical hear, The Nationwide is a vital starting step within the band’s discography.

–Grant Sharples

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07. Unhappy Songs for Soiled Lovers (2003)

“So Shocked You Wish to Dance with Me Now”: Very like The Nationwide, Unhappy Songs has successfully been retired from reside performances. “Accessible”, “Cardinal Music”, and “Homicide Me Rachael” appeared on setlists as just lately as 2014, however the one reduce off of Unhappy Songs you’re prone to hear as we speak is “Fortunate You”. It’s a breakup tune, positive, however the tone isn’t certainly one of bitterness a lot as resignation; Berninger’s ex-lover remains to be going to have a maintain on him lengthy after she’s discovered another person. “You personal me/ There’s nothing you are able to do,” he sings, not that there’s something he can do, both. It took the gang a couple of minute to identify this one when The Nationwide performed it on the Pink Hat Amphitheater in Raleigh, NC, final Could, however as quickly because it registered, the one particular person within the room speaking was Berninger.

“I’ll Clarify The whole lot to the Geeks”: I’ll admit that I can’t keep in mind the final time I listened to Unhappy Songs in full earlier than taking up this piece. In revisiting it, I used to be pleasantly stunned: it’s hardly a definitive musical assertion of objective, but it surely’s higher than your common early-aughts indie rock album. In its lesser moments, Unhappy Songs seems like a more-refined model of what you heard on their debut, however its finest songs characteristic sharper lyrics and a few indicators of musical experimentation. It’s album in its personal proper, however Unhappy Songs is most vital in the way it remodeled the band who launched The Nationwide into the band who would launch Alligator.

–Jacob Nierenberg

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06. I Am Simple to Discover (2019)

“So Shocked You Wish to Dance with Me Now”: It’s no secret that The Nationwide have already performed fairly just a few tracks from their newest album reside, certainly one of which is the extremely percussive “The place Is Her Head”. They debuted it with indie singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers again in April, and it opens with easy, repeated chords, adopted by auxiliary percussion and later Bryan Devendorf’s crackling snare and punchy bass drum. The lyrics are composed nearly utterly of questions (“Is she outdoors? Is she looking? Is she standing up?”), which pair completely with Mike Mills’ equally ambiguous brief movie.

“I’ll Clarify The whole lot to the Geeks”: I Am Simple to Discover and the album that preceded it, Sleep Effectively Beast, nearly beg to be in contrast to one another. The identical synth experimentation and loop manipulation seen on Sleep Effectively Beast is discovered right here. Even the precise haunting synth that opens “I’ll Nonetheless Destroy You” is heard on “So Far, So Quick” and “Quiet Gentle”. And it could be straightforward to make such comparisons, however I Am Simple to Discover is a completely new path for The Nationwide. They’ve by no means had almost as many collaborators earlier than, together with Sharon Van Etten, Gail Ann Dorsey, and Lisa Hannigan to call just a few. It’s a report that additionally takes liberties with its size, however to not its detriment. As a substitute of being overzealous, it’s affected person, and it asks listeners for this endurance, too. Due to this, it could not have the quick enchantment of data corresponding to Excessive Violet or Boxer, but it surely’s all of the extra rewarding and adventurous for it.

–Grant Sharples

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05. Sleep Effectively Beast (2017)

“So Shocked You Wish to Dance With Me Now”: On the entire, Sleep Effectively Beast is The Nationwide’s mess-around-with-electronics album, but it surely’s bought a few of their hardest-rocking materials because the Alligator days. Living proof: “Day I Die,” which the band has performed at almost each present because the report dropped. In case you don’t already consider Bryan Devendorf is among the many finest drummers in indie rock, you’ll throughout the first 30 seconds. Couple that with a refrain that begs to be shouted alongside to, and the screeching guitar that responds to it, and also you’ve bought The Nationwide’s most anthemic monitor in years.

“I’ll Clarify The whole lot to the Geeks”: From a purely lyrical standpoint, Sleep Effectively Beast is top-tier Nationwide. The central narrative of the album is about saving a crumbling marriage, which will get actually meta when you think about that Berninger’s spouse, Carin Besser (a former fiction editor for The New Yorker), co-wrote the lyrics with him. (She’s had writing credit on earlier songs, however by no means throughout a full album.) It’s musically the place Sleep Effectively Beast falters. A few of the extra experimental songs, corresponding to “I’ll Nonetheless Destroy You” and “Responsible Celebration”, efficiently marry digital components to The Nationwide’s signature model of brooding, whereas others, corresponding to “Stroll It Again” and the title monitor, aren’t attention-grabbing sufficient to justify their size. Objectively, Sleep Effectively Beast is an efficient album, and for 2 thirds of its hour-long runtime, The Nationwide ship the type of emotionally resonant songwriting that has made them indie rock heavies for 20 years. It’s simply that for a lot of the opposite third, they don’t.

–Jacob Nierenberg

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