The National and Bon Iver have released their new collaborative single ‘Weird Goodbyes’. The song features a string arrangement by the National’s Bryce Dessner, performed by the London Contemporary Orchestra. Check it out below.
According to the National singer Matt Berninger, ‘Weird Goodbyes’ is “about letting go of the past and moving on, then later being overwhelmed by second thoughts.” Aaron Dessner added, “I somehow could hear our friend Justin [Vernon]’s voice and heart in this song from the beginning. We sent it to him and it moved him – he then sang with Matt so powerfully.” He continued:
‘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 [Devendorf] 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.
The National and Bon Iver both released their latest albums, I Am Easy to Find and i,i respectively, in 2019.
