Released 15 years ago this week, the National’s acclaimed 2007 record Boxer is the subject of a new volume in the lauded and long-running 33 ⅓ series, where music writers explore classic albums.
Based on extensive original interviews with the band and others, author Ryan Pinkard — a former TIDAL editor — obsessively reconstructs a transformative chapter in the National’s story, revealing how the Ohio-via-Brooklyn five-piece found the sound, success and spiritual growth to evolve into one of the biggest indie-rock bands of their time.
Among other themes, Boxer is inspired by the presidency of George W. Bush, whose wars in Iraq and Afghanistan following the 9/11 terrorist attacks cast a shadow over the mid-2000s. Anyone familiar with Boxer knows it begins with “Fake Empire,” a defeated track about getting drunk and tuning out the news in light of the doom and gloom many Americans felt.
Below, Pinkard shares an excerpt from the book, which tells the story of how a song about political hopelessness became an unlikely anthem for the hope and change of Barack Obama’s first presidential run.
Posted from: https://tidal.com/magazine/article/the-national-obama/1-84989