Brainy
by The National
This was my favorite song from Boxer, but it was a pretty tight race between, well, every song on Boxer.
Here’s the thing. The National seems to have this indescribable feeling surrounding their music - this man and his ‘tall kingdom’. Brainy encompasses the sublime feel of the entire album well with lyrics about intellectualism (or maybe pseudo-intellectualism), complex drum rhythms, and gorgeously orchestrated strings.
Like almost all of their songs, I can’t say I entirely comprehend the story here. But look at this:
“I was up all night again, boning up and reading the American dictionary
you’ll never believe me what I found
I think I better follow you around”
The guy was reading the dictionary. If not trying somehow to feel a little less inferior, trying to learn at least something about her, anything. And he learns something perfectly unspecified. About who? This girl -
“I’ve been draggin’ around from the end of your coat for two weeks
everywhere you go is swirlin’, everything you say has water under it”
and
“you’re the tall kingdom I surround
I think I better follow you around”
This guy is hopelessly, destructively, incapably in love. With somebody he doesn’t really understand. And so he makes his pitch:
“You might need me more than you think you will
come home in the car you love, brainy brainy brainy”
And his pitch is suitably human and normal and even a little bit irresistible.
Get the song here.
