Conversation 16

Arcade Fire multi instrumentalist Richie Reed Parry contributed to several tracks on High Violet including this one. Guitarist Aaron Dessner told The Quietus: "The big thing he did was that he heard me working on the music for 'Conversation 16', and he said, 'I have an idea!' So he went in and sang – his father is a choir director so he knows multi-part singing – he sang this seven-part vocal, it's all him layered. That's beautiful. He's this very lovely, unassuming person – when you see someone's musicality inserted into the room, you're like, 'woah!' And that was great – he was just staying at my house, it wasn't like we planned to work on it like that."

This deliberation of marital turmoil was briefly called 'Romantic Comedy' before being switched to its present title. Vocalist Matt Berninger explained to The Quietus why: "In the last minute I changed it – actually, it was my wife who said that the old title sounded like we were trying too hard – and there was something about it that bugged me. We wanted a title that wasn't in the song. It's weird, every little thing matters. What you name the record matters, what you name each song matters, the colour, the typeface you use – all that stuff changes the way you hear a record. The typeface you use on the cover changes the way the record sounds. It could be a million different things, so we're obsessing over every little detail like that from the last minute. Is 'Bloodbuzz' one word or two? I have to think about it for a couple of days, and then it's clear that it has to be one word. Why? I don't know. It makes the song sounds different."

Like a number of tracks on High Violet, Berninger's lyrics for this song are comi-horrific. Here he sings: "I was afraid I'd eat your brains/ Because I'm evil!" The National vocalist told The NME: "A lot of that stuff is intended to be funny. It's a grey area between brutal, uncomfortable honesty and ridiculousness." He added: "This record is definitely not happy, but I do find a level of fun when you talk about eating brains and torture parties."