THE NATIONAL - Cherry Tree (2004), listen #3
I came to a realization about what I most dislike about Cherry Tree ’s much-maligned (by me, and apparently nobody else) opener, “Wasp Nest.” It’s not the bland instrumentation, although it’s not that interesting to me. It’s not those damn bells, although I do find them annoying. My biggest issue is Matt Berniger, plain and simple. I don’t like his poor-man’s Dylan vocal approach of mumble-singing without putting a vocal melody to it. I don’t like his specific inflections, and in particular, his delivery of the line “I wanna kiss your skinny throat” makes my skin crawl in a way that distances me from the song rather than pulling me in. I don’t like the lyrics on this particular song, and more generally I don’t like the fact that seemingly 90% of his lyrics are about the narrator being condescending towards a woman. Moving on to “All The Wine,” this one does have a solid hook and a more interesting lyric, and more energy to it. But then there’s Matt doing the same