The National, “Bloodbuzz Ohio” (2010)
find it on High Violet

The standard line in most reviews of High Violet has been about The National’s position as chroniclers of the middle-class+ urban adult American existence. But the fascinating part of The National for me is that they have a sound that, honestly, is plodding, amelodic, and often overly serious, they ride this one sound over and over…and yet create something that’s gorgeous and irresistible. Let me just go ahead and give them the title of the greatest Greater Than The Sum Of Their Parts band EVER.

I’ve spent the better part of this week with this song on repeat. Is the line “I still owe money to the money to the money I owe” really that addictive? Apparently. There’s some piano action going on in the background of that chorus that turns it from a nice little hook into something almost overwhelmingly beautiful. The line “I never thought about love when I thought about home” takes on a sadness to those of us who have moved to a place that we like better and feel more a part of than our own hometowns, which we don’t really miss at all.

It’s a song and and a band that have been written a lot about lately, but this is exactly what Fine Tune Friday’s all about: that one song that has been the soundtrack of my week. It’s on repeat, it has five stars in iTunes: this is about as easy as picking out The Best Song In The World This Week gets.