25. The National - “Walk It Back”

Monogamy is a strange concept. In a sense, I think it functions as humanity’s primary affront to nature. It’s our rebellion and denial. Our attempt to leave behind our animalistic ways – evolution itself, and claim our ascendancy to something more. In a way, I think that’s what being human is all about. Of course, biologically speaking, we are nothing more than animals, and yet, because of our ability to think, reason, and reflect – in short, our sentience, we are able to transcend instinct, restrain ourselves, and commit to beneficial and enriching long term goals no matter how painful or illogical they may seem within the short-term.

It’s the existence of this short-term struggle that so often gives birth to art (which could be, at least in part, why us humans are the only animals really capable of producing “art”). Art is inherently masochistic. It’s contrived from our self-imposed condition, simultaneously noble and foolish, both entirely pointless and the very reason for our existence, and I believe this song captures that intrinsic sense of duality perfectly.

It depicts a soul caught within the vice of monogamy, holding on against all odds even while spouting nihilism. You can sense the struggle of the mind willing itself against nature and reaching for some invisible ideal. The protagonist senses something more, a combination of the past and the future, and this amalgamation of memory and hope steels him through the lows of the present. There’s an underlying feeling of love that motivates him to press onward, to resist temptation and ease for the sake of something greater, for something imaginary that is made tangible through his thoughts and in turn given reality. It’s teh story of humanity in a nutshell. The struggle to overcome what we are or what we currently have in order to form or become something greater.