Albums of the Year - #9: The National - "Trouble Will Find Me"

Rating: 8.3/10

I'll be honest with you; I'm not crazy about the second half of Trouble Will Find Me. After four amazing tracks packed into the top half of the line-up, the album unfortunately drops off in quality a bit. With the major exceptions being the electrifying "Graceless" and pitter-patter of "Pink Rabbits," the tracklist starting with "Heavenfaced" is somewhat lacking. There's nothing inherently bad about any of the songs, but there also isn't anything to pull you in either. Devoid of any kind of earth-shattering moments and leaning too heavily on Berninger's melancholy vocals, songs like "Slipped" and "Hard to Find" merely stretch out the record longer than it needed to be.

That being said, I still gave the album an 8.3. Why's this? Well, though the second division of Trouble Will Find Me is disappointing, four of the first five songs are awe-inspiring. "I Should Live in Salt," "Demons," "Don't Swallow the Cap," and "Sea of Love" more than make up for the rest of the album's shortcomings. All possess that trademark sound all of The National's best tracks do, except maximized to new heights.

Top 10 "Love" Songs

Love is by far the most common subject a song is written about. It's a universal theme that transcends generations and will never come close to going away. So, naturally, lots of musicians make it the focus of their music.

But this list is not going to countdown songs about love; that's a pretty insurmountable task, considering the volume of songs that would qualify. Instead, today I'm listing my top ten songs with the word "love" (or some variation of it) in the title. Yes, it's a pretty open, loosely-related category, but that just allows for a more eclectic bunch of tunes to be featured. It may only be a trivial shared characteristic, but I still think it'll make for an interesting lineup.

Lollapalooza Day Two Stream

The second day of Lollapalooza is well underway and once again streaming on YouTube. Local Natives are playing right now (and killing it, too) and The National take the stage at 6:00 PM Chicago Time. That's 4:00 PM on the West Coast, 7:00 PM on the East Coast, and midnight in the UK. Which set are you most looking forward too this weekend? Let me know in the comments!