that glimmering world come get me

Sleep Well Beast is not my absolute favorite of The National's LPs, not even their absolute best work in my opinion. But it is their most daring; and it bears a lot of meaning for me.

I'd been waiting all this past summer for it to come out, because I'd been low for a while. I'd hit the bottom of my emotional well. I didn't care. I was out, the river had run dry. I even had suicidal thoughts from time to time, admittedly, although I never had (and never have) any serious plans to follow through.

SWB saved me because while I was low, while I was curled up at the bottom of the pit and wallowing, it was there with me...they were there with me. It felt the same as all other National albums released in my time listening to them. It felt like someone had been listening to me, but this time, it was strangely relevant to my present. It felt like someone was talking to me, telling me it was okay. It was alright. Someone else had felt like this. Someone, others, know your thoughts because they were their thoughts too. It...it was like someone was talking to me in a low voice, I swear. Just...someone was there. Being.

Alligator wooed me. Boxer hooked me for good. High Violet I committed, and Trouble Will Find me, I held their hand in the rain. Sleep Well Beast, they held my hand. Sleep Well Beast saved me.

But in a way, they all have. It sounds so sappy and so cliché, but The National have saved me. It only took me 10+ years of listening to them for me to realize.