Everything Is Embarrassing

Helena Fitzgerald made some lovely notes about her favorite band:

Most of the things we love are the things that embarrass us.

[...] I had never loved a band like I loved this band, and the truth is I never really have since. I acknowledge that quite a lot of music is better than the National, more accomplished, more important, more coherent, and less embarrassing. But we rarely love things for reasons that aren’t embarrassing. The things we really love say more about who we are than we’d like them to say. The National are far and away my favorite band, but if you asked me what music I like and I didn’t know you well, I wouldn’t necessarily mention them. That answer would reveal too much. Maybe I don’t want you to know me that well; maybe I don’t want to be that known.

I feel like The National is always on the outskirts for me—I mostly forget they exist and then spend weeks listening to nothing but one album of theirs on repeat. A quick search a minute ago and I didn’t even realize that they put out an album last year! I’m a dummy and so shall fix this by listening to Roman Holiday from now until the end of time.