Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks

Typical of The National frontman Matt Berninger's lyrics, "Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks" is rather abstract, with swans and geeks and a cake. He shed some light on the meaning in a discussion with David Letterman, where he said: "It's about trying to be a professional and trying to buttoned-up and slick, but not knowing how to do that."

Arcade Fire multi-instrumentalist Richie Reed Parry played guitar and standup bass on this track, whilst Justin Vernon from Bon Iver supplied harmonies. Vernon paid tribute to the band in an interview with The Guardian: "There was such a friendliness to them, a spirit that was way above any ego or mitigating vibe. There is a precision about their music that reaches places that only the National can scratch. High Violet is just making their arms longer."

The song title is typical of the made-up names the National give to many of their songs. Frontman Matt Berninger told The Quietus: "Inventing, yeah. Like 'Squalor Victoria' – there's something in that word that sounds like something because every time you actually try to use real words to describe it, it doesn't sound like the thing you're talking about anyway. This character, Vanderlyle Crybaby – I can't tell you how long it took me to come up with the word 'Vanderlyle.' There's the Nirvana song, 'Pennyroyal Tea' – just the word 'pennyroyal' I loved, it sounded so great and it's just the name of a tea. I couldn't use that – maybe I should have, that would have saved some time – and so I started looking at the rhythm of the word, and the cadence. I probably have a book of a hundred different three syllable things."