Released just ahead of last weekend’s stunning, triumphant Madison Square Garden show, The National’s “Space Invader” sees the indie rock champions dive into glimpses, snapshots and sounds of the past, exploring the “what if’s” that define love and loss.
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Stream: “Space Invader” – The National
It’ll come to me later like a space invader, and I won’t be able to get it out of my head…
The National are a band that like to work deliberately, carefully, and at a clip that’s at once intensely creative and yet mysterious.
All of that is to say, lead singer Matt Berninger fills notebooks with lyrics as song snippets are passed around by virtuoso guitar duo, brothers Aaron and Bryce Dessner – and yet, it often takes years for albums to come together.
That approach is as it should be, naturally. The results are absolutely worth the wait, as with this year’s stunning LP First Two Pages of Frankenstein.
So when the famed Brooklyn-by-way-of-Ohio band (with members now flung across the globe from Paris to Cincinnati) announced two new singles – with an album potentially on the way this fall – it was enough to shock and delight legions of fans.
The National also have a habit of trotting out new, unreleased songs on the road, even going so far as to nail down details of what would become “Eucalyptus” during a fall 2022 tour.
Like Easter eggs dropped into a novel, it’s a thrill and a joy to hear what the band is working on at any given time – and eagle-eyed fans spotted the noticeable introduction of “Space Invader” popping up time and again during this year’s tour.
It’s a calculation I made a mistake on
I never should have said it like I said
It’ll come to me later like a space invader
And I won’t be able to get it out of my head
What if I’d never written the letter
I slipped in the sleeve of the record I gave you?
What if I stayed on the C train until Lafayette?
What if we never met?
What if I’d only just done what you told me
And never looked back?
What if I’d only ducked away down the hallway
And faded to black?
– “Space Invader,” The National
The song is anything from half-baked, though – it’s part of a duo of singles released by The National ahead of last week’s triumphant, career-defining show at a sold-out Madison Square Garden.
The show itself felt like watching a famed prizefight or the NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden: This long-running band was locked in, precise, overjoyed to be there and truly grateful. “Space Invader” was even given a coveted placement in the final third of the setlist, alongside all-time classics like “Mr. November,” which saw Mr. Berninger take to the crowd in roaring fashion.
It’s been a long journey from playing shows at Mercury Lounge, playing to crowds of five people – suffice to say, The National met the moment at MSG, and “Space Invader” helped prove that.
The track is, fittingly enough, packed with traditional hallmarks of songs by The National – thunderous drums and eloquent lyrics with a twinge of hazy nostalgia – is another joy in life, and yet, this also signals a return to form.
Namely, for fans who crave the “live in the studio” feel of records like 2010’s High Violet, there’s much to love.
It was too romantic, it was sad and frantic
A paperback book in a storm drain
It could go number one if I copied a new one
From a melody that I wish I had
In fact, shows by The National seem more expansive than ever these days, with arrangements for material new and old sounding louder and punchier than before – particularly the outro for the stunning “Space Invader.”
As Berninger explores life’s many “what if’s” – slipping a note into a vinyl sleeve, staying on the train just one more stop, turning away rather than turning back toward a loved one – drummer Bryan Devendorf sounds as fresh and strong as ever, which just so happens to be a staple of live shows by this explosive-yet-elegant band.
The song’s final half seems to nod to 2017’s Sleep Well Beast, an album now greeted like a conquering hero when it appears in the band’s live setlist, as Berninger mumbles lyrics atop Devendorf’s remarkably punched-up drumming.
What if I’d never written the letter
I slipped in the sleeve of the record I gave you?
What if I stayed on the C train until Lafayette?
What if we never met?
What if I’d only just done what you told me
And never looked back?
Like the best National songs, it’s such a prospect that it might make your head spin – the small details that make up a life, a glance across a crowded room, a subtle kiss that no one sees, and the wonder that it even happened at all.
Aaron Dessner himself told a crowd at the band’s Detroit show earlier this summer that the song is about “being tethered to the spaceship of your life while you’re trying to escape from it,” a feeling of being something of an alien in the story of one’s own life, perhaps.
It’s a phenomenon the band also seems to nod to in this year’s single “Your Mind Is Not You Friend,” but for those who like their National songs with some punch, the hits just keep rolling.
One of the country’s finest bands simply keeps getting better, another triumph in and of itself after a sometimes tumultuous twenty-plus years as a band. If the band has anything to say about it, we very well might see a new album from these world-champion rockers in the months ahead.
What if I’d only ducked away down the hallway
And faded to black?
What if I’d never written the letter
I slipped in the sleeve of the record I gave you?
What if I stayed on the C train until Lafayette?
What if we never met?
What if I’d only just done what you told me
And never looked back?
What if I’d only ducked away down the hallway
And faded to black?
It’ll come to me later like a space invader
And I won’t be able to get it out of my head
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Stream: “Space Invader” – The National
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