The National are rousing-rock sad sacks in a time-honored tradition: Joy Division, the Cure, Nick Cave. With their fifth set, perhaps the sad-sackiest yet, they embody their own era. Singer Matt Berninger's gorgeous baritone is still the band's main selling point: Listen to the mopey sexiness of "Bloodbuzz Ohio" as he describes undressing "at the foot of your love." Yet the tension comes mainly from composers Aaron and Bryce Dessner: The music is some of their lushest and darkest, especially the ghostly, droning "Afraid of Everyone." "All the very best of us/String ourselves up for love," Berninger repeats near the set's end, a lusty barroom singalong for all us lonely people. Where do we all come from?

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.