Best Albums of the Decade: Boxer by the National
Matt Berninger’s voice always sounds tired and I like this. It makes me think that he is tired from all the living that he’s writing songs about, that he’s tired of dreaming for 29 years before he saw you. Boxer is not so much sad as it is real, taking the feelings and insecurities that come from loving someone and living and putting them into the format of several songs. It is urging and pleading but never desperate. Few bands have better lyrics these days than the National, hitting the ear pleasingly without ever seeming corny or as if they’re trying too hard. A soothing balm for the days when we’re just tired.
