The National is one of those bands that still feels obscure, but is now one of the biggest bands of the moment. Or as Phoebe Bridgers puts it nicely: “My friends and I have this joke about The National – obviously they’re hugely popular, but we still feel this ownership over them”. ”‘No but you don’t like them in the right way! Do you even understand how profound this band is?’”

Entirely in that tradition I was asked to help put together the most Underrated songs of The National. The most popular songs, such as the most listened to on Spotify, are excluded from the list.

Mijn favoriet? Het prachtige So Far Around the Bend dat uitkwam op Dark Was the Night. A album for the good cause with original songs from Arcade Fire, Beirut, Sufjan Stevens, amongst others. The album was produced by the Dessner brothers and vital ground for later collaborations such as Big Red Machine (with Bon Iver) and Taylor Swift. In Dutch you can listen to a a great podcast episode about this album.

I also voted for beautiful 'small' songs from the band, such as Wasp Nest, All the Wine, Secret Meeting and Ada. And of course also the number 1 on the list: Mr. November.

The podcast by Dutch radio station KINK can be listened here.