Alligator Tracklist
Alligator is the third studio album by American indie rock band The National, released on April 12, 2005 on Beggars Banquet. Recorded and produced by Peter Katis and Paul Mahajan, the album brought The National critical acclaim and increased their fanbase significantly.
Alligator appeared on many year-end top 10 lists, including Uncut and Planet Sound, both of which ranked it as the number two album of 2005. Pitchfork Media ranked Alligator at number 40 in their top albums of the 2000s list. Alligator has sold over 200,000 copies worldwide.
The band performed album track “The Geese of Beverly Road” at the wedding of producer Peter Katis. A photo of the band performing on stage, with couples dancing in the foreground, became the cover of the band’s next album Boxer.
“Alligator” Q&A
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What have the artists said about the album?
Frontman Matt Berninger in an interview with Pitchfork:
When we were recording and writing the record, we had a lot of songs. Some songs would stick with us in the writing process and when we were in the studio, and we would keep listening to them for weeks and weeks and weeks. The ones that grew on us were the ones we fell in love with the most. When we put the final record together, those were the ones we finally chose, so it makes sense that that would be the listening experience.
But yeah, there’s a lot of little stuff in the songs that I think aren’t about one thing. They’re a little murky, and that’s on purpose. Songs that you can interpret differently after three or four or five listens are the songs that we’ve always been in love with. That’s what the record turned into for us, and we collected the songs that had the most staying power for us. It’s not something we think about when we’re writing, but it is when we’re choosing what’s the best of things we’ve done. We try to edit out the bullshit, but even if it’s fun bullshit, it’s hard for us to stand behind it if it doesn’t hold up after 20 listens.
