The National’s Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers has always been an on/off album for me. It starts amazingly with what could be my favourite song of theirs; Cardinal Song. In fact Cardinal Song taught me how to get through the end of a relationship without the seemingly inevitable element of self destruction. I’ve always struggled with most of the rest of the album though; it has it’s charms, but, well, it just isn’t Aligator or Boxer. Just the other day however I rediscovered my love for the final track of the album, Lucky You, something I see pretty much as a companion to Cardinal Song, bookending the album with post-relationship depression.

Lyrics

Every time you get a drink
And every time you go to sleep
Are those dreams inside you head
Is there sunlight on your bed
And every time you’re driving home
Way outside your safety zone
Wherever you will ever be
You’re never getting rid of me

You own me
There’s nothing you can do
You own me

You coulda made a safer bet
But what you break is what you get
You wake up in the bed you make
I think you made a big mistake

You own me
There’s nothing you can do
You own me
You own me
Lucky you

You own me
There’s nothing you can do

You clean yourself to meet
The man who isn’t me
You’re putting on a shirt
A shirt i’ll never see
The letter’s in your coat
But no one’s in your head
Cause you’re too smart to remember
You’re too smart
Lucky you

Video

Whoever decided to match this song with silent movie The Tram by Krzysztof Kieslowski was truly a genius. The only other Kieslowski work I’ve seen is Trois Couleurs: Bleu, which I didn’t leave as a fan of, but it might not have been the film to watch when I was too sleepy to give it the concentration it may have deserved. Anyways, The Tram matches the song truly perfectly in my opinion.