In between their second and third albums, The National released the Cherry Tree EP. The first three songs mention drinking. “Wasp Nest” tells someone that “you’re cursing up a storm in a cocktail dress”, chaos over an acoustic guitar. “All The Wine” would also appear on next years Alligator album and “All Dolled-Up in Straps” adds some mournful strings that would appear a few more times.
The title track adds some intense drumming on a song where singer Matt Berninger sings that “loose lips sink ships” and “About Today” is an emotional song, asking “how close am I to losing you?”. The album then closes with the addition of Padma Newsome on the acoustically inclined “Reasonable Man (I Don’t Mind)”. The Dessner and Devendorf brothers along with Matt Berninger crafted several really good songs for this 28 minute sampler. For many fans thinking of digging deeper into the catalogue, this is more representative of their later sound and could act as their true debut.
8/10
The Light Appears 