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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Laura Snapes

The National’s 20 best songs – ranked!

The National circa 2007.
Bracingly honest … Bryan Devendorf (left), Matt Berninger (centre), twins Aaron Dessner and Bryce Dessner and Scott Devendorf (right), circa 2007. Photograph: Abby Drucker

20 Available (2003)

The band’s frontman, Matt Berninger, has expressed his hesitation about this song from their second album, Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers; it is definitely a rare nasty one. “You just made yourself available,” he sneers at a woman, disgusted that he has fallen for her tricks. But there is a thrill in that unfettered bitterness, while the seething, choked guitar points towards the Ohio band’s 2005 breakthrough, Alligator.

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