Day 23 (April 11): The National - Mr. November

The National Came Into Their Own 15 Years Ago on Alligator ...It has not been lost of me that I have been on an accidental mid-2000s kick this week. Kanye West,  the Mountain Goats, Green Day - what is this... uh... MTV? No, that was the 90s. iTunes? I'm sorry, the mid-2000s passed me by a little. I was alive then (hello!), but sort of as more of a passive, emotionally volatile culture sponge awaiting a personality (worth the wait? Don't answer that).

Still, we live within a nostalgia-driven world, because the present, for reasons that I will not bring myself to elaborate upon this time, is less than worth looking into. There's no reason why not really remembering a particular time is a barrier to declaring yourself amongst it, right?

So I've elected to stay in the middle of the decade before last (oof) for a little bit. Things were fine back then. Aside from the forever wars in the Middle East, the Presidency of George W. Bush, the decline of anything approaching liberal politics in the UK, the build-up to the last recession... okay, I'm getting it, things didn't start getting bad recently.

Today's song of the day is a fitting way to explore that messy and weird nostalgia, I think. 'Mr. November' is the closer off of The National's breakout 2004 album Alligator, and it's easy to feel nostalgic about it. The National are still pumping out great music sixteen years later, but they've mellowed out plenty since the absolute vitality and the anger displayed here - they tried to kind of do it again with 'Turtleneck' a few years ago, and that ended up being way too nice and domesticated to be angry.

But the song is also apparently written about vice-presidential candidate John Kerry, a Democratic presidential candidate in 2004 who nobody remembers and who lost to GWB that autumn. Particularly in a week where Joe fucking Biden became the Democrats' only hope for 2020, the fact that 'Mr. November' is advocating in favour of a cosy liberalism is... not so great for the song's emotional effect. It would be easier just to forget the historical context, and not tunnel down the dispiriting rabbit hole of your favourite bands being milquetoast liberals.

See? Nostalgia is complicated. Don't look at the past, kids, except when the present sucks, which is always, so do look at the past, except don't? I don't know. I'm not your teacher.

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