The National f/ Sharon Van Etten: "Think You Can Wait"

Those who enjoy the National will agree that they craft excellent albums. “Mr. November,” “Apartment Story,” and “Bloodbuzz, Ohio” may be some of the finest big-time indie rock singles of the past six years or so (of the non-Arcade Fire category), but it’s obvious the band puts the most effort into crafting records with notable peaks and valleys, with a sonic narrative that can unspool like classic noir. In turn, the National’s B-sides consist of mostly fair to middling tracks absent from their parent albums simply because they aren’t particularly good, so credit is due to Matt Berninger and the brothers Dessner and Devendorff for realizing this. None of the extra tracks on the recent High Violet (2010) reissue warrant more than a shoulder shrug. And, really, that’s fine. Few bands boast a knack for B-sides. That’s why they’re called B-sides, right?

I’ve been told that “Think You Can Wait” plays over the closing credits of Win Win, a Paul Giamatti film that I don’t plan on seeing, despite the man’s general excellence at portraying the sad sack du jour. And true to the National’s B-side prowess (or lack thereof), it’s not a very memorable song, a one-plane slow burn with a litany of Matt Berninger rhyming clichés: he’s “running a sleepless run,” “holding a goodnight gun,” “losing [his] accents one by one,” etc.

Sharon Van Etten is used sparingly, reserved for a breathy “All I have / Is all” at the chorus. I wonder if the National should have asked her to sing lead; the song’s progression and lyrical matter is more akin to a track off of her excellent Epic (2010) than to a proper National jam, and minus the dynamic shifts associated with his band, Berninger’s baritone renders the proceedings a wee bit too MOR. It’s the closest the National have come to a weekday afternoon hit on lite radio.

But be sure the band is fully aware of this, which is why “Think You Can Wait” is closing out a Paul Giamatti movie as opposed to their next album. They know where the goods are at.