The National Know You All Too Well

The “serious lady� who is the subject of the National’s new song, “So Far Around the Bend,� is trapped in place (“now there’s no leaving New York�) and in time (“praying for Pavement to get back together�). The band, however, is not. With a spring in its step and pastoral woodwind-and-string accompaniment, this track shows the eerily consistent Brooklyn quintet stretching out a bit, and the results are quietly impressive. The song appears on Dark Was the Night, an AIDS-benefit compilation curated by the band that marks both twenty years and twenty albums from the Red Hot organization. We’re streaming it here, but not posting a charity-defeating download link. We have some standards.