Library / Emotional Suppression
Listen to this when
Fake Empire
For when we're all pretending it's fine 🎺
Who it's for
The National's song is about keeping up appearances and escaping into denial to avoid facing reality.
Numbly pretending→Gently awake
Feelings it meets
What it is
"Fake Empire" is a song by the Brooklyn indie rock band The National from their fourth album Boxer (2007), released as the album's third single in 2008. Vocalist Matt Berninger described it as being about refusing to face what is really happening and pretending the world is much more pleasant than it is. Bryce Dessner built the music around a polyrhythm over simple piano harmonies.
Where to find it
All major streaming services.
Before you start
Age: All ages
Man goes into the noisy crowd to drown his own clamour of silence.Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds, no. 110
