the national - alligator: 20th anniversary poll

came out on april 12th, 2005.

i like a lot of their albums, but i don't think they ever made a better one

Top 5 would be:

Lit Up
Soho Riots
All the Wine
Beverly Road
Mr November

No idea how to choose from those.

love basically all of these, besides maybe "karen." "mr. november" holds a special place in my heart, "abel" is one of their best-ever rockers, but i think "beverly road" is on another level.

The guitar work was so much more fun and pretty on this album, ever since they just kinda strum, but I haven’t really listened to the last couple of albums so what do I know.

mr. november is easily the best song they've ever recorded

This is the only National album I give one fuck about.

I think this was the third thread I ever started on this board, so I have been here for 20 years, wow.

Abel v Mr November

this is one of the true "two albums stand above all the others and it's impossible to pick between the two" bands for me.

Alligator vs. Boxer, both awesome.

This is still their best album and All the Wine is still their best song. The colorful lyrics, the chiming guitars, the build and release behind the drumming. It is perfect.

"looking for astronauts" (remix) ft. katy perry

when this first came out i think mr. november was the i'd pick as the sad guy anthem.

over the years the one i return to the most is friend of mine... a gallant fraternity that i miss dearly

Alligator vs. Boxer, both awesome

they had one amazingly fertile run from Alligator through Trouble, any of those four could be my favorite.

on this album, hard to deny Mr. November.

I'm sorry I missed you, I had a secret meeting in the basement of my brain
It went the dull and wicked ordinary way

goddamn I love this song, first thing I ever heard from them I think

I’d rate this five song closing run against the best of them.