“You Had Your Soul With You”

The first 10 seconds of the new National song “You Had Your Soul With You” sound like a malfunctioning police siren, one that might make you feel like you’re fending off a minor panic attack on a crowded subway. Then this little arrhythmia settles, and a more recognizable, National song-type things start happening: Bryan Devendorf’s drums lay down a familiar pattern and Berninger sidles up to the microphone to mutter his confessions. And just when the National are Nationaling again, another human sings. A non-Berninger voice on a National song feels like a coyote loose in a public park—how did it get here? Is it okay? And not just any human, but David Bowie bandmate Gail Ann Dorsey (which, by the way, here is a video of her playing bass and singing the Freddie Mercury part of “Under Pressure,” you’re welcome). The moment is revelatory, and as the song opens up into a sunset of strings and woodwinds while Dorsey sings: “You have no idea how I died when you left,” the National reveal a distant new horizon for what was once the most narrowly focused indie rock band in existence.