Picking apples, making pies
Put a little something in our lemonade
And take it with us
We're half awake in a fake empire
We're half awake in a fake empire
Tiptoe through our shiny city
With our diamond slippers on
Do our gay ballet on ice
Bluebirds on our shoulders
We're half awake in a fake empire
We're half awake in a fake empire
Turn the light out, say goodnight
No thinking for a little while
Let's not try to figure out
Everything at once
It's hard to keep track of you
Falling through the sky
We're half awake in a fake empire
We're half awake in a fake empire
The National is an American rock band from Cincinnati, Ohio, formed in Brooklyn, New York City in 1999. The band consists of Matt Berninger (vocals), twin brothers Aaron Dessner (guitar, piano, keyboards) and Bryce Dessner (guitar, piano, keyboards), as well as brothers Scott Devendorf (bass) and Bryan Devendorf (drums). During live performances, the band are joined by longtime touring members, Ben Lanz (trombone, synthesizers) and Kyle Resnick (trumpet, keyboards, backing vocals). Carin Besser, the wife of Berninger, is not a band member but has written lyrics for the band alongside her husband since its 2007 album Boxer.
Founded by Matt Berninger, Aaron Dessner, Scott Devendorf and Bryan Devendorf, the National released their self-titled debut album, The National (2001), on Brassland Records, an independent record label founded by Aaron and his twin brother, Bryce Dessner. Bryce, who had assisted in recording the album, soon joined the band, participating as a full member in the recording of its follow-up, Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers (2003).
Leaving behind their day jobs, the National signed with Beggars Banquet Records and released their third studio album, Alligator (2005), to widespread critical acclaim. The band's fourth and fifth studio albums, Boxer (2007) and High Violet (2010), increased their exposure significantly. In 2013, the band released its sixth studio album, Trouble Will Find Me, which was nominated for a Grammy Award. In 2017 the band released the album Sleep Well Beast, which won the band a Grammy Award. Their eighth studio album, I Am Easy to Find, was released in 2019. Their ninth studio album, First Two Pages of Frankenstein, was released on April 28, 2023 and featured appearances from Sufjan Stevens, Taylor Swift, and Phoebe Bridgers. It reached No. 1 on the Billboard charts in the AAA & Rock categories. The band released a surprise album, Laugh Track, on September 18, 2023. It was mostly written and recorded alongside their earlier 2023 album.
Five of the band's albums were nominated by music writer Laura Snapes for inclusion on NME's 2013 list of the NME's The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
Weird that you've decided this, yet it seems to have no effect on the playlist. I can't imagine why that might be.
Desmond wrote:
I have submitted several high quality songs with all required info that are consistent with the Radio Paradise feel; all were rejected, and they accept this?
You're drifting guys. Please don't wreck a good thing.
I have submitted several high quality songs with all required info that are consistent with the Radio Paradise feel; all were rejected, and they accept this?
You're drifting guys. Please don't wreck a good thing.
Bill, please note, this guy knows the "Radio Paradise feel" and he is letting you know that this song "has no place on Radio Paradise". In future, please get his approval for all new songs.
Imagine, the owner of the station thinking he can pick the tunes; the nerve!
(Please file his comment under "W", for "What-evah!".)
Devendorf is a hell of a drummer. Those of us who are percussionists know the real deal.
At least Eddie Vedder has a range and can really lift his voice and soar with the other members of Pearl Jam. This guy with The National just drones on in a monotonous tone throughout every song, which for me really limits the musical performance of the other band members.
Well then, just only listen to Eddie, ok? And don't concern yourself with other singers. Since, if other singers don't sound like Eddie, then what's the point? Right? Why limit the musical performance if it's not, um, Eddie; totally agree.
DrLex wrote:
I think expecting Radio Paradise to have a playlist of 8 billion songs, or even 8 million songs, is quite a bit of lack of perspective. Do you ever come out in the real world? Even in my country where FM radio doesn't suck as hard as in the US, you'll hear the same song multiple times a day unless you'd go working, shopping and dining while wearing industrial ear protection.
Because you seem to like numbers, here's some mathematics. Suppose a station has a playlist of 10000 songs. I have no idea how many songs the active playlist of RP has, but this seems reasonable, especially in the light of the following assumption. Suppose this station is run by DJ Random, who gives every song a number between 1 to 10000 and uses a perfect random number generator to pick the next song. Suppose you listen to 120 songs this way (at an average of 4 minutes per song, that would take 8 hours). The birthday paradox says that in this case (see simulation below), there's a 50% chance that you'll hear the same song twice in this time span!
For a playlist of 50000 songs, the 50% chance of repetition is already reached at approx. 250 picks, not the expected 600.
Of course, while many radio streams work this way, on RP this is not how it's done — luckily. First of all, Bill avoids the horrible transitions that DJ Random would produce, by combining songs that actually belong together. This reduces the amount of randomness, but of course Bill has a memory and will try to avoid repeating the same song often. To minimize repetition, he would need to create an ideal sequence of all songs once, and repeat this eternally. But that would become boring too, so as a compromise and to keep managing RP tractable, Bill recycles 'stretches' of playlist, slowly mutating them and discarding them after a while. And Bill is only human, so he'll play the songs that he likes a little bit more often than others.
I wasted some of my time telling this story to show that things can be a whole lot worse, and I believe RP comes damn close to an ideal radio station. You just have to accept the fact that ideality doesn't exist and that some of the songs you don't like will be played, and repeated after a while.
"Effortless" is one word to describe his vocalizing, others may say lifeless, indifferent, muttered, or lazy. It works for him, the band, and their material, which is really all that matters to them and their fans.
Devendorf is a hell of a drummer. Those of us who are percussionists know the real deal.
I totally agree, he is fantastic, and this band too!
A Radio Paradise classic! 10,10 10.
I Agree! EXCELLENT TUNE!! Thanx RP!