The National released the new studio single “Weird Goodbyes” featuring Bon Iver‘s Justin Vernon via 4AD. The latest collaboration between Vernon and the band was debuted live by The National in May at their first concert in three years and was thought at the time to be titled “Bathwater (Mount Auburn).”
I Am Easy To Find, The National’s last full-length studio album, arrived in 2019. Vernon and The National’s Aaron Dessner teamed for their second Big Red Machine LP, How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last?, in 2021.
“Last spring, the band reconvened at Long Pond to begin writing and recording new music that we’ve been working on,” The National explained in announcing the new single on Instagram last week. “‘Weird Goodbyes’ featuring Bon Iver (@boniver) felt like the right track to share first and is one of a handful of new songs we’ve been performing on tour this summer. We’re so grateful to our friend Justin Vernon for joining us on this song.”
“It’s about letting go of the past and moving on, then later being overwhelmed by second thoughts,” added The National lead singer Matt Berninger in a press release. “Weird Goodbyes” also incorporates strings from the London Contemporary Orchestra orchestrated by Bryce Dessner.
Aaron Dessner shared the following in regards to “Weird Goodbyes”:
“‘Weird Goodbyes’ was one of the first new songs we made. I was misusing drum machines, as usual, and stumbled onto this beat that got stuck in my head — it felt like something only Bryan could naturally play. We built the song around the beat. Matt’s melody and words felt so elegant and moving from the beginning — mourning a loss of innocence and motivation, holding onto memories and feelings that inevitably slip away and the grief we all suffer in weird goodbyes.”
Check out the official lyric video for “Weird Goodbyes” below:
