MUSIC
Taylor Swift collaborates with The National on band’s latest album
The ‘Shake it Off’ singer has teamed up with The National to record some angst-ridden lyrics amid recent breakup with Joe Alwyn.
Taylor Swift is letting her emotions work themselves out with the microphone as the superstar collaborates with notorious angst rock band The National.
The popstar contributed her vocals alongside the band’s frontman Matt Berninger to The National’s track, ‘The Alcott’ from their latest album, ‘First Two Pages Of Frankenstein’.
Swift, a long-time friend of the band, has collaborated with The National before — and even called Aaron Dessner, who appeared onstage with her to perform in Florida, the “collaborator version of a soulmate” while on her ‘Eras Tour’.
The band’s Dessner joined Swift on ‘Folklore’, ‘Evermore’, and ‘Midnights’.
Berninger and Dessner are joined by the latter’s brother, Bryce Dessner, and Scott and Bryan Devendorf, another pair of brothers, to make up the contemporary rock band.
Who owns the rights to the songs?
The National has been forthcoming about the legal technicalities of sharing songwriting rights with Taylor Swift.
“I’d taken a swing at [’Cardigan’] and ‘Willow’ and a couple of others, and I wasn’t having a lot of luck, so Aaron sent them to Taylor,” Berninger told the Telegraph. “I always have a lot of music to work on, and I am looking for something to connect emotionally.”
“The reverse has happened, too,” Berninger continued, “where Aaron wrote something for Taylor, and I dove right in.”
“It works both ways.”
Swift on ‘The Alcott’
The band’s ninth album was released Friday, April 28, with ‘The Alcott’, Swift’s contribution, a ballad about the end of a relationship.
“I get myself twisted in threads to meet you at The Alcott / I’d go to the corner in the back where you’d always be / And there you are, sittin’ as usual with your golden notebook / Writing something about someone who used to be me,” the new song begins, with Swift joining in for the chorus.
“And the last thing you wanted is the first thing I do / I tell you my problems, you tell me the truth / It’s the last thing you wanted, it’s the first thing I do / I tell you that I think I’m falling back in love with you.”
Swift’s vocals are heard echoing Berninger’s lead throughout the later verses and she joins in again full swing upon the bridge.
“I’ll ruin it all over (Why don’t you rain on my parade?) / I’ll ruin it over for you (Shred my evenin’ gown) / I’ll ruin it all over (Read my sentence out loud) / And over like I always do (’Cause I love this curse on our house).”