My fiancé passed away and I miss him so much, this is the song I want him to hear because I am light years away from him and him from me. Life after his passing just hasn’t been the same. Thank you for this touching song!
Oh my...This song..❤️❤️❤️ I lost my wife on this day in 2019, from an aortic aneurysm.I heard it on an obscure station tonight...Gave me all the FEELS... I pulled off the road sobbing...It truly sums up Perfectly how I've been feeling these last few years...Great song...
I think I’ll never in my entire life, love a song like Light Years, it says a lot about me, I can’t really explain what this song means to me, my whole life I try to reach a specific target in my life, and through out the years I see myself stray away from that target and start to feel like I’m literally light years away from it, then I find another thing and again after sometime, I lose hope with it, and no matter how much I try to convince myself that even though I’m light years away from it, I still can get it, but it’s always ends up the same with me, sometimes I even feel myself as a ghost who lives there without really having a purpose in life, a lot of emotions comes through me when this song is on, but it’s for the better, I don’t know how, but it makes me feel better.. I know that my comment is just like some messy feelings written down in a comment, but I needed to say something after a long journey with this song ❤️
We'll get through all of this to remain happy. Stay strong my man. Set mini targets for yourself to achieve the bigger goal. I wish you the best and all success you can get
I appreciate your messy feelings in a comment, so I'm going to leave my messy feelings about your messy feelings in a comment. I love when I'm feeling something specific that's also vague. Today has been a shit day. This made it better.
This reminds me of the ending of the final passage in the Great Gatsby: "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter. Tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther until one fine morning... And so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past"
For me this song is about the beauty of the world and the people we love while at the same capturing the sadness that everything and everyone we love in life at some time we have to lose. Either by circumstance or death.
This song captures the beauty of the world and the people in our lives and at the same time sadness of the fact that we everything we love we have to and are destined to lose.
I met my first love 2 years ago, he died last week after battling addiction for most of his life. I would give absolutely anything for him to come back and be well. I know I’ll miss him for the rest of my life. He was such a kind and vibrant human. Atleast he isn’t running from his demons anymore and he can finally rest.
I lived through a rough childhood, left my hometown for the Marines, went to war twice, got two college degrees, met somebody and fell in love, and encountered every little bit of what this song lays out... In a very beautiful manner. Keep making music The National, it speaks to us through every word you sing.
I’m still here. Every year I grow, and the meaning changes. This year it reminds me of my very lonely childhood. Always moving, divorced narcissistic parents. No other family. Abuse. I made a lot of the same movements. I befriended so many animals in so many random fields and gardens. Thank you, the national.
The National is everything. The obscurity of the lyrics speak to the language of the soul. The harmonies are your barely beating heart. A small story: Matt threw a beach ball into the crowd at the last concert I attended. I caught it. When I was moving, my mother was Marie Kondo-ing about in my closet and almost threw it out. “What do you need a deflated beach ball for,” she said. Oh mother. This sparks joy like nothing else.
At the concert ending their 2017 tour I caught the last cup of wine Matt tossed. It went over my wife's head, bounced off the guy's hands behind her, fell on my wife, drenched her, and I caught the cup. Guys were high fiving me. My wonderful wife was initially upset about being drenched but then was glad that I was so happy. I still have the cup.
I love the way you've described their music. I too am a huge fan. But, just FYI you're generally supposed to keep the beach balls bouncing around the concert venue.
@@its_tend_o Yes, Ethan, good point. However, Matt had just pulled the cork on this one and mildly deflated before he flung it, so in my state of delusional fervor, I took it as a souvenir offering. Alas, I am beginning to doubt my choices, and perhaps if the universe was in its proper order, that beach ball would still be bouncing around the Fort York Historic Site to this day, free as a plasticine bird. Unfortunately, it is trapped, proverbially and literally, in my closet, where the knowledge of its existence brings me unbounded joy. Perhaps I should bring it to the edge of this flat earth and cast it to the seven seas, where it can begin its righteous journey into infinite space exploration, and commence first contact with extraterrestrial life, a fortuitously intelligent offering to the heavens of our cranially oblongated overlords.
@@PrinceOfPersia8888 Who am I to define what's supposed to be? Perhaps it was meant for you. I'm glad it brings you happiness and thank you for sharing.
I've always found this song hauntingly beautiful. It reminds me of missed connections with someone important and lost opportunities with people. If only I had tried a little harder. There's a mix of regret, sadness, and acceptance in those memories.
I'm a 56 year old father. I started to listening to The National a few months ago (I know, call me late to the party when I'm in my coffin) and this song was on the first CD I bought. I thought that this song was about the distance between lovers. I never realized that this song was about the distance that grows between a parent and child until tonight. What an amazing song that can evoke beauty in loss. Although I believe in the power of art, I am amazed that song could provoke me to acknowledge the distance(and why am I always so late to the party?)
Mate I am a 58 year old father only discovered the National a few years ago from the movie Warm Bodies don’t beat yourself up 😀we boomers are late bloomers better late than never
I always interpreted it as being about death and loss (i was listening to it shortly after a best friend of mine passed) but that is as lovely and valid of an interpretstion too.
I miss my wife and I miss my daughter. I miss my Dad and I miss my sister. I never thought such pain could exist. This song makes me crumble into a sobbing, pathetic mess, yet sums things up perfectly.
I used to sing this song with my boyfriend, and I knew we weren't going to make it no matter how hard I tried. The National was our band. It's been a year, and of course they will always be my favorite band. Thank you. Xoxo.
Lyrics : You were waiting outside for me in the sun Laying down to soak it all in before we had to run I was always ten feet behind you from the start Didn't know you were gone til we were in the car Oh, the glory of it all was lost on me 'Til I saw how hard it'd be to reach you And I would always be light years, light years away from you Light years, light years away from you I thought I saw your mother last weekend in the park It could've been anybody, it was after dark Everyone was lighting up in the shadows alone You could've been right there next to me, and I'd have never known Oh, the glory of it all was lost on me 'Til I saw how hard it'd be to reach you And I would always be light years, light years away from you Light years, light years away from you Light years, light years away from you Light years, light years away from you...
Jasmina Markovic “you were waiting outside for me IN the sun” laying down to soak it all in.... (like sun tanning or feeling the warmth for a bit in peace and quite before having to run and get back into the fray)
@@SteveM84x It's a sad song, i'll give you that. But, sadness has a way of putting things into perspective the way other emotions don't. I've always come out on the other side feeling a greater appreciation for the world around me, and naturally happier. :)
I remember how I used to listen to this after I started realising that you werent the person I thought you were. I listened to it a while after I finally cut you off. I was so upset. But I know now that all you ever did was manipulate and hurt me when you knew I was in a vulnerable place and would have done anything for you. I'm better off light years away from you. I'm not the scared girl you once knew. I'm so much more now. Those light years were one of the best things that ever happened to me
Holy Mary Mother of God. This was gorgeous stupid crazy beautiful. The National always proves that my wounds haven't healed. But it's still worth living for.
My daughter/niece died in 2018. She was 23. I had to turn off her life support. She died of Septic Shock from using dirty needles. When I first started listening to this song it was on SiriusXM, I didn’t feel nothing. I was still in shock but later I could feel again. I remember Sartre said that tragedy is inevitable. It will happen to everyone. It is the essence and mechanism of human experience.
When a three minute song takes you on a journey Rollercoaster of emotions, takes you from reality living the lyrics in your own unique way you know it's truely a masterpiece😊
I have a young daughter and son that I'm constantly worried about. I'm worried that my relationship with them will end up being like the one I have with my family. Distant. And time doesn't slow down. With every blink of the eyes, they grow up so fast. This song and video just put tears to my eyes. Life is hard.
Yeah. My daughter died last Labor Day. I had to turn off her life support. She had Septic Shock from using dirty needles. She was 23. Her son will be 4 this summer. My son is 29. My son and me are close and so was my daughter/niece. Their mom and grandfather(my dad) died in 2009, their grandma( my mother)died in 2015. My daughter's boyfriend overdosed in 2016. We are/were close because we have been through some tough times. When I first heard Sharon VanEtten's song, Seventeen, it drove me to tears.
This just blew my mind as it resonates with my life and essence. I have a daughter and this song is so emotive I feel it's artist impact. When I watch the movie, "Good Kill," with Ethan Hawke, and the theme song "Afraid of Everyone," I was blow away again. I was a Capt. In the USAF during Vietnam and at 73 The National have helped me process my end game. Thank you.
Yeah. I'll be 59 in 2 months. My daughter/niece died last Labor Day. I had to turn off her life support. She was 23. She had Septic Shock from using dirty needles. Her son will be 4 yrs. We were close. When her son was born, she hemoraghed. She had to go to surgery 3 times that day. We went through some really tough times. It really hardened us. The first time I heard Sharon Van Etten's song, Seventeen, It drove me to tears.
Watching this video, after waiting 30 minutes for it to load, in the middle of the ocean and miles and miles and miles away for my wife. Somehow the National's music always applies to how I feel. Love ya Teres
This song makes me cry pretty much without fail.. Particularly with this video. It's the most beautiful and saddest song I can think of. Time to play it again...
For anyone that might not know yet. There is also a whole 20 minutes short movie about this album with all the songs in it. I lost track how many times I cried during that, it's pure genius.
this is for my girl, sorry that we couldn’t be together. you were the realest experience i’ve ever had. sorry that I couldn’t be the best version of myself with you, and it hurts so bad. i’ll always love you. thanks for the memories
ya men same here, This song remind me of that someone. It was the best experience of my life, and even tho is over I wount't change for nothing. The memories will live one, and at the end we had the time of our life
This....this is the type of song that makes me fall in love with The National. It reminds me of Slow Show. (All time fav song of theirs.) Thank you for releasing this. It’s so beautiful.
National, I am completely in love with your music, the day is not a day without a National song, come to Portugal again!...see you live, is one of the 10 things for me to do before I die... Thank you very much ;-)
I have recently lost my dear mum..and THIS ....THIS brings me to tears easily (which I need) on every listening...it is BEAUTIFUL however you interpret it
The hypnotic, haunting, poignant, adult, contemplative, unsettling, starkly beautiful, vastly enveloping NATIONAL. Thanks, Matt. You make me want to write and play music. And feel. And love.
This is not my life best moment and you always comes to make me cry, but cry sincerely and after feel better. Thanks to be always close to me with your precious music and lyrics. This video is really out of this world in terms of beauty. LOVE THE NATIONAL
I feel like this song can be interpreted various ways, which, to me, is what makes it as glorious as it is. Upon listening to it (a thousand times over, at least) I find that I have found numerous meanings within the lyrics. Two of the most prominent ideas conveyed, in my eyes are these: 1) Death, and 2) feeling estranged (far away) from somebody. The song is titled 'light years' which sets the tone of there being great distance, whether that means physically (deceased) or mentally (estranged.) I think the song plays into both. The lyrics "you could have been standing next to me, and I'd have never known" sways the idea both ways. In the deceased theory, it could mean that they are a ghost, and could be literally standing right next to you (as a spirit) and you'd never know. In the estranged theory, it would mean that you could be standing right next to a person (a significant other, perhaps) and yet you'd never know, because of how distant and removed they are, maybe you've fallen out of love, or grown so far apart that you feel like you don't even know them anymore, or you've taken one another's presence for granted and overlook each other. The chorus lyrics "oh the glory of it all, was lost on me, till I saw how hard it'd be to reach you.." to me, means that the person has taken this (deceased or distant) person for granted, taken their time with them for granted, and they are now realizing what they lost because of the absence (physically or mentally) of the person, and the finality of never being able to speak to, or connect with them the same again as before. Overall, the song is absolutely heartbreaking, yet phenomenally beautiful nonetheless. I've yet to stop listening to it, and I have deemed it my new favorite song from The National. Feel free to reply with your theories of the songs meanings, or let me know if you guys took away from the song what I did. Maybe my theories were obvious, but I just wanted to share them!
Tragedy is inevitable. It will happen to everyone. It's like what Sarte said , Tragedy is the essence and the mechanism the humanity. It makes us more human and we know what each other goes through.
Thank you for this comment, the song made me cry irrefutably exactly because of this realization I won't be able to reconnect to someone very special in the same ways we used to and your comment has given me words to understand better. It's another wave that hits me so to speak, the first one being the break up, and it still hurts but less than before, so I guess I'm healing. Still, I deserve a moment to feel sad and mourn about losing the ability to make more fond memories as each others' significant others.
That is pretty much what this is. This video is a way cut down version of their short film. The short film was pretty cool and sad and you get only a taste of it from this. If you like this video, you should try to see how you can see the I Am Easy To Find short film. They played it before their concert in Toronto recently. I was lucky to get to see it. There are also alternate version of the album songs with female singers that are only in the film.
I read that book some years back (more than half a lifetime ago at age 14) and really loved it, great writer! (And love The National and this song too, but particularly paired with this video, I feel it might be their saddest one)
First time seeing this video and hearing the song I have felt so moved. Literally moved to tears. Such a powerful song that shows life’s fragility and how we need to take some time to breathe and appreciate everything that we have, no matter what stage or path we are at. I always find myself listening to The National at night and let those kind of big life questions float around.
I remember listening to the album "Sleep Well Beast" during a harsher and darker time in my life and the emotions from the track were basicly what I was feeling at the time. Now my life is getting better, every song so far from 'I Am Easy to Find' reminds me that life is beautiful and this new music has made me cry. I can't wait to purchase this album that day it comes out and starts a new chapter in my life through The National.
Anyone else here from "This is us"....? That's not how I discovered this amazing band but it brought me back. "YOU OWN ME" is one of my all time favorites that I haven't thought about in far too long. ♡
There's so much raw emotion in this track that can elicit a different response from anyone listening based on your experiences, memories, and overall journey with The National. One of the simplest piano driven tracks but yet takes the listener to a different plane.
There's a 'Pink Rabbits' vibe to this record I can't escape--and I STILL LOVE that song to bits to this day. 'Trouble Will Find Me' is such a great record.
This song touches me in many ways. I think it's about how short life can be and how quickly the stages of life go by - childhood, adolescence, adulthood. You grow up, go to college, get married, have children, grow old and pass. These stages of life are inevitable. Whatever stage we are now will pass - so might as well cherish the moments we have with our loved ones. I love how the actress is dancing - playing - singing in between the important moments in life - letting it be. Alicia is a phenomenal actress. Did this music video win any awards? I think it should.
Listen to "Cardigan", from Taylor Swift, produced by one of The National's musicians. It has very similar piano, but her song is less sad. I recommend it, though ! :)
Light years away.. such a beautiful euphemism for being totally disconnected from others (or a significant other). No human being can travel the speed of light. To feel as if one is “light years” away truly (in intellectual and poetic perspective) describes the feeling of knowing you’ll never be understood and may never understand another regardless..
Well, I just watched this while I’m at work, it was hard not to cry. I remembered my relationship with my deceased father... I never imagined “Light Years” was about family and now it all makes sense!
It reminds me of my dad who died from cancer. The part about being 10 feet behind reminds me of being a little girl. The whole song just kills me. I have so many questions that I'll never get to ask him. So many times in my life when I really needed him there.
@natania abreu and @danielle bailey , the same for me. The first thought and the last and all in. between when I am listening to this song over again and again is my father who I miss every day more and although I am still waiting for him to come back, I will never see him again. May they rest in peace and may we carry them with us with all the heritage they have left to us.
@@ioannapavlidou9314 My dad liked to go fishing, so I took my son out the other day. I hadn't went since I was about 17. On the walk back to the car I was ugly crying and trying to keep it all in. I'm happy nobody noticed.
@@dbmomma85 I feel you so much. Almost every day I discuss with him in my mind and we do jokes and I ask for his opinion. I still cannot go back to all those things we would do together and I can't imagine that a moment will come that I will be blessed to have a son and take him to do things that I would want my father to do with us, like fishing. It hurts but I have this metaphysical crazy feeling that they must be watching us from somewhere and protect us. And that they are in a better place.
even tho it would be light years away from you, i'll keep you in God's hand. you'll be safe and surrounded by many love you won't ever waste. if it's meant to be, it'll be, Dzai.
In this life you can not control the actions of another human being because they are very unpredictable. At best... you can find people who respect who you are... acknowledge what you’ve been through... and only want ‘better for you. If at least two of the three sentiments aren’t attached with this person....walk away, to alleviate the triggers that take you back to self harm. Stay light years away.
My wife just recently had a miscarriage and this song conveys the feeling of being light years away from something that felt so close to changing my life for the better. I really have been having a hard time and hope to one day not feel this sad/depressed anymore. This is a beautiful song and is helping me cope with the immense loss.
I know it means smoking, but seeing it written made me think of people lit up by their cellphones- could be right next to one another and never know it
Emily Bennett same. Immediately thought and still think it’s primarily a drug reference, even a very discreet social critique. But I also thought later on, within the context of interpersonal distance, about how people in parks at daytime are on devices in every direction, literally speaking. At night they’d just look like a bunch of fireflies, all together but each alone like stars blinking off and on in a galaxy.
Whooooa so that made me think so much deeper about that line entirely. Very thoughtful of you guys Emily and Graham. I agree, I detest where our world is heading with social media and phone addiction. I've been right next to loved ones, said something to them, and they've not heard me or acknowledged me because they were too far gone on their phones. It makes me so so sad to think we're going to raise a generation of socially inept screen addicted fools. Matt is quietly raging. "Everyone was lighting up in the shadows, alone/You could have been right there next to me/I'd have never known" he's criticising himself for zoning out of reality and buying into social media consumerism. Then the next line "Oh the glory of it all/was lost on me" he's criticising the perceived glory and achievement of social media to connect people, when it is actually moving us further and further apart. Then "til I saw how hard it'd be to reach you". He fully understands the gravity of the social ineptitude of not being able to communicate with someone right next to him (presumably he means a loved one being the subject of this song) This might be just me reading into this and correlating thoughts you guys helped me find and galvanise in my head, the song might have an entirely different meaning. This is just my analysis I guess@@grahambartley8321
Nothing expresses the glory and pain of being human better than a National song. This one hits every chord...
Amen
Couldn’t of said it better myself
Exquisitely phrased, my good man. 🙏
I feel the same...
You think!!!!💓
I miss you. I've missed you everyday for the last five years. I hope you are doing well wherever you are.
This song has always been this for me too, until recently. I hope you’re hanging in there.
You don’t have to feel this way if you aren’t a fuck up. Piece of advice be a good person. Being a human and a good person is not hard!
@@dizzy_star
My fiancé passed away and I miss him so much, this is the song I want him to hear because I am light years away from him and him from me. Life after his passing just hasn’t been the same. Thank you for this touching song!
Oh my...This song..❤️❤️❤️ I lost my wife on this day in 2019, from an aortic aneurysm.I heard it on an obscure station tonight...Gave me all the FEELS... I pulled off the road sobbing...It truly sums up Perfectly how I've been feeling these last few years...Great song...
@@sherrysavage2223 sending you a lot of courage
Sending you love and strength 💙
and my father now, light years away from me since last year. that pain hurts so much. and this song, heavenly.
Whos still here 😢❤
Always here ❤
Almost daily 🫶🏻
Im here
National & Alicia Vikander still making grown men cry in 2019. Job well done.
You wouldn’t entertain being here unless you wanted to cry.
I think I’ll never in my entire life, love a song like Light Years, it says a lot about me, I can’t really explain what this song means to me, my whole life I try to reach a specific target in my life, and through out the years I see myself stray away from that target and start to feel like I’m literally light years away from it, then I find another thing and again after sometime, I lose hope with it, and no matter how much I try to convince myself that even though I’m light years away from it, I still can get it, but it’s always ends up the same with me, sometimes I even feel myself as a ghost who lives there without really having a purpose in life, a lot of emotions comes through me when this song is on, but it’s for the better, I don’t know how, but it makes me feel better..
I know that my comment is just like some messy feelings written down in a comment, but I needed to say something after a long journey with this song ❤️
We'll get through all of this to remain happy. Stay strong my man. Set mini targets for yourself to achieve the bigger goal. I wish you the best and all success you can get
I appreciate your messy feelings in a comment, so I'm going to leave my messy feelings about your messy feelings in a comment. I love when I'm feeling something specific that's also vague. Today has been a shit day. This made it better.
This reminds me of the ending of the final passage in the Great Gatsby: "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter. Tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther until one fine morning... And so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past"
For me this song is about the beauty of the world and the people we love while at the same capturing the sadness that everything and everyone we love in life at some time we have to lose. Either by circumstance or death.
Well that's life, we have no purpose. We're all just pairs of eyes floating around each having their own experience. Enjoy it, it's short.
That Piano riff, Matt's baritone, Alicia's innocence, black and white... Gorgeous!
This song captures the beauty of the world and the people in our lives and at the same time sadness of the fact that we everything we love we have to and are destined to lose.
I met my first love 2 years ago, he died last week after battling addiction for most of his life. I would give absolutely anything for him to come back and be well. I know I’ll miss him for the rest of my life. He was such a kind and vibrant human. Atleast he isn’t running from his demons anymore and he can finally rest.
He will be forever in your thoughts and a song such as this will bind you for eternity. I hope you find peace. And love.
🫂
I lived through a rough childhood, left my hometown for the Marines, went to war twice, got two college degrees, met somebody and fell in love, and encountered every little bit of what this song lays out... In a very beautiful manner. Keep making music The National, it speaks to us through every word you sing.
That's something to envy. I didn't have a good childhood either yet you've done literally everything that i can't. You've lived my dream.
@@keganwalls584they lived a life that included shadows
I’m still here. Every year I grow, and the meaning changes.
This year it reminds me of my very lonely childhood. Always moving, divorced narcissistic parents. No other family. Abuse.
I made a lot of the same movements. I befriended so many animals in so many random fields and gardens.
Thank you, the national.
The National is everything. The obscurity of the lyrics speak to the language of the soul. The harmonies are your barely beating heart.
A small story: Matt threw a beach ball into the crowd at the last concert I attended. I caught it. When I was moving, my mother was Marie Kondo-ing about in my closet and almost threw it out. “What do you need a deflated beach ball for,” she said. Oh mother. This sparks joy like nothing else.
At the concert ending their 2017 tour I caught the last cup of wine Matt tossed. It went over my wife's head, bounced off the guy's hands behind her, fell on my wife, drenched her, and I caught the cup. Guys were high fiving me. My wonderful wife was initially upset about being drenched but then was glad that I was so happy. I still have the cup.
@@PaulWolfe1 That's love right there, Paul.
I love the way you've described their music. I too am a huge fan. But, just FYI you're generally supposed to keep the beach balls bouncing around the concert venue.
@@its_tend_o Yes, Ethan, good point. However, Matt had just pulled the cork on this one and mildly deflated before he flung it, so in my state of delusional fervor, I took it as a souvenir offering. Alas, I am beginning to doubt my choices, and perhaps if the universe was in its proper order, that beach ball would still be bouncing around the Fort York Historic Site to this day, free as a plasticine bird. Unfortunately, it is trapped, proverbially and literally, in my closet, where the knowledge of its existence brings me unbounded joy. Perhaps I should bring it to the edge of this flat earth and cast it to the seven seas, where it can begin its righteous journey into infinite space exploration, and commence first contact with extraterrestrial life, a fortuitously intelligent offering to the heavens of our cranially oblongated overlords.
@@PrinceOfPersia8888 Who am I to define what's supposed to be? Perhaps it was meant for you. I'm glad it brings you happiness and thank you for sharing.
I've always found this song hauntingly beautiful. It reminds me of missed connections with someone important and lost opportunities with people. If only I had tried a little harder. There's a mix of regret, sadness, and acceptance in those memories.
I'm a 56 year old father. I started to listening to The National a few months ago (I know, call me late to the party when I'm in my coffin) and this song was on the first CD I bought.
I thought that this song was about the distance between lovers. I never realized that this song was about the distance that grows between a parent and child until tonight. What an amazing song that can evoke beauty in loss. Although I believe in the power of art, I am amazed that song could provoke me to acknowledge the distance(and why am I always so late to the party?)
Mate I am a 58 year old father only discovered the National a few years ago from the movie Warm Bodies don’t beat yourself up 😀we boomers are late bloomers better late than never
It doesn't matter that you were late, it does matter that you're here now!
I always interpreted it as being about death and loss (i was listening to it shortly after a best friend of mine passed) but that is as lovely and valid of an interpretstion too.
@@ripelivejam same.
Don’t worry about being late to the party, be grateful you came 😉
This song breaks me every time I listen to it.
Me too, especially the lyric "you could've been right there next to me, and I'd have never known." hits really hard
You should read what they said about this song in Pitchfork
@@jarricklau yeah I read that, what an emotional backstory...
The perfect mix between sadness, regrets, nostalgia and a pinch of hope! This song is a masterpiece!
This song always makes me miss my past friendships that have disappeared through the current of life.
I miss my wife and I miss my daughter. I miss my Dad and I miss my sister. I never thought such pain could exist.
This song makes me crumble into a sobbing, pathetic mess, yet sums things up perfectly.
Keep going.
That short film has stayed with me to this day and will for my entire lifetime.
What is the name of the short film?
I've known the band for a long time
@@violetadeoutono80 I am Easy To Find
I used to sing this song with my boyfriend, and I knew we weren't going to make it no matter how hard I tried. The National was our band. It's been a year, and of course they will always be my favorite band. Thank you. Xoxo.
Lyrics : You were waiting outside for me in the sun
Laying down to soak it all in before we had to run
I was always ten feet behind you from the start
Didn't know you were gone til we were in the car
Oh, the glory of it all was lost on me
'Til I saw how hard it'd be to reach you
And I would always be light years, light years away from you
Light years, light years away from you
I thought I saw your mother last weekend in the park
It could've been anybody, it was after dark
Everyone was lighting up in the shadows alone
You could've been right there next to me, and I'd have never known
Oh, the glory of it all was lost on me
'Til I saw how hard it'd be to reach you
And I would always be light years, light years away from you
Light years, light years away from you
Light years, light years away from you
Light years, light years away from you...
Thank you so much for the lyrics, Jasmina!
Doesn't he say "soak it all in"?
NERD! Jokes i love you for this thank you
@@LeonorGrosso Yes, you are right . I corrected . Thank you very much . :)
Jasmina Markovic “you were waiting outside for me IN the sun” laying down to soak it all in.... (like sun tanning or feeling the warmth for a bit in peace and quite before having to run and get back into the fray)
There is no singer who can command words and music anything like Matt can. This is perfect
My penis bigotry
Iron and wine. Can't remember his name though.
@@keganwalls584 ^ Sam Beam.
Yea that's it. I can never remember his name.
I'll say brian fallon...
Everytime you put out a new record, the world gets a little happier.
Happier? Did you watch that vid? My day is ruined.
Yeah... Then the world listens to the album and cries for a few months
@@SteveM84x It's a sad song, i'll give you that. But, sadness has a way of putting things into perspective the way other emotions don't. I've always come out on the other side feeling a greater appreciation for the world around me, and naturally happier. :)
@@its_tend_o Thank you. ❤️
and simultaneously sadder
I remember how I used to listen to this after I started realising that you werent the person I thought you were. I listened to it a while after I finally cut you off. I was so upset. But I know now that all you ever did was manipulate and hurt me when you knew I was in a vulnerable place and would have done anything for you. I'm better off light years away from you. I'm not the scared girl you once knew. I'm so much more now. Those light years were one of the best things that ever happened to me
Holy Mary Mother of God. This was gorgeous stupid crazy beautiful. The National always proves that my wounds haven't healed. But it's still worth living for.
Baby shark
This song reminds me of my children that died when they were little. The oldest one will never be more than 5 1/2 and it seems so far away sometimes.
I'm sorry about your loss. Angelus Domini, child of God.
My daughter/niece died in 2018. She was 23. I had to turn off her life support.
She died of Septic Shock from using dirty needles.
When I first started listening to this song it was on SiriusXM, I didn’t feel nothing.
I was still in shock but later I could feel again.
I remember Sartre said that tragedy is inevitable. It will happen to everyone.
It is the essence and mechanism of human experience.
@@georgeredhawk1996 I'm so sorry for your loss.
this song makes me feel things i can never describe
You know something is good when you can make a grown man cry.
When a three minute song takes you on a journey Rollercoaster of emotions, takes you from reality living the lyrics in your own unique way you know it's truely a masterpiece😊
Absolutely exceptional. Where would we be without music like this?
In my ass
I have a young daughter and son that I'm constantly worried about. I'm worried that my relationship with them will end up being like the one I have with my family. Distant. And time doesn't slow down. With every blink of the eyes, they grow up so fast. This song and video just put tears to my eyes. Life is hard.
Yeah. My daughter died last Labor Day. I had to turn off her life support. She had Septic Shock from using dirty needles. She was 23. Her son will be 4 this summer.
My son is 29. My son and me are close and so was my daughter/niece. Their mom and grandfather(my dad) died in 2009, their grandma( my mother)died in 2015. My daughter's boyfriend overdosed in 2016.
We are/were close because we have been through some tough times. When I first heard Sharon VanEtten's song, Seventeen, it drove me to tears.
@@georgeredhawk1996 Heartfelt condolences. Sorry for your loss. Parents should not see their kids die.
Maybe it won't turn out to be too bad Mike!
@@georgeredhawk1996 Seventeen is one of my favorite songs of all time
i know the meaning of your words, i wish the best has come to you and these concerns the past years.
Heard this on This Is Us and looked it up before the song even finished, it's absolutely beautiful
The same!!
I’m not a very openly emotional person. The Nationals music makes me emotional.
This just blew my mind as it resonates with my life and essence. I have a daughter and this song is so emotive I feel it's artist impact. When I watch the movie, "Good Kill," with Ethan Hawke, and the theme song "Afraid of Everyone," I was blow away again. I was a Capt. In the USAF during Vietnam and at 73 The National have helped me process my end game. Thank you.
Yeah. I'll be 59 in 2 months.
My daughter/niece died last Labor Day. I had to turn off her life support. She was 23. She had Septic Shock from using dirty needles. Her son will be 4 yrs.
We were close. When her son was born, she hemoraghed. She had to go to surgery 3 times that day. We went through some really tough times. It really hardened us. The first time I heard Sharon Van Etten's song, Seventeen, It drove me to tears.
I discovered The National through This Is Us(Series)...a day ago(2022/Feb/07).
What a beautiful song, got me in my feels.
Me too!
Watching this video, after waiting 30 minutes for it to load, in the middle of the ocean and miles and miles and miles away for my wife. Somehow the National's music always applies to how I feel.
Love ya Teres
Hang in there, pal.
This song makes me cry pretty much without fail.. Particularly with this video. It's the most beautiful and saddest song I can think of. Time to play it again...
The beauty in sadness. The Art. The national. This is amazing
I heard this song during my mom's funeral last month and you don't know how happy I am to find this song.
The beauty of this song. One of those songs that just stops you in your tracks. One of their finest albums also!
For anyone that might not know yet. There is also a whole 20 minutes short movie about this album with all the songs in it. I lost track how many times I cried during that, it's pure genius.
Hey mate, do you know where can we find it?
Same here!
You can watch it here:
ua-cam.com/video/ifElv18k2O8/v-deo.html&ab_channel=TheNational
❤
this is for my girl,
sorry that we couldn’t be together. you were the realest experience i’ve ever had. sorry that I couldn’t be the best version of myself with you, and it hurts so bad. i’ll always love you. thanks for the memories
oh man, sorry to read this. Been there, but you’ll meet a new girl and you will be the best version of yourself, for sure.
From my point of view, you're lucky enough to have had someone love you at all, (excluding family) regardless of how long you were together.
Ouch. :(
Choramos juntos bro
ya men same here, This song remind me of that someone. It was the best experience of my life, and even tho is over I wount't change for nothing. The memories will live one, and at the end we had the time of our life
This....this is the type of song that makes me fall in love with The National. It reminds me of Slow Show. (All time fav song of theirs.) Thank you for releasing this. It’s so beautiful.
almost a full year ago - haven't listen to it in almost 11 months.
That opening piano FLOODED memories back
Okay, so after 2 days of nonstop listening, I think it's not an understatement to say I'm addicted.
National, I am completely in love with your music, the day is not a day without a National song, come to Portugal again!...see you live, is one of the 10 things for me to do before I die... Thank you very much ;-)
I have recently lost my dear mum..and THIS ....THIS brings me to tears easily (which I need) on every listening...it is BEAUTIFUL however you interpret it
Hey you Catherine. Im sorry for your loss. keep strong and your mum is still alive somehow, even it is just in your heart and mind. take good care.
So sorry for your loss ❤
The hypnotic, haunting, poignant, adult, contemplative, unsettling, starkly beautiful, vastly enveloping NATIONAL. Thanks, Matt. You make me want to write and play music. And feel. And love.
This is not my life best moment and you always comes to make me cry, but cry sincerely and after feel better. Thanks to be always close to me with your precious music and lyrics. This video is really out of this world in terms of beauty. LOVE THE NATIONAL
has puesto palabras a mis feelings, gracias
Just saw The National in Harrisburg and this song is just as lovely live as it is on the album. It's gorgeous.
This is one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard.
I feel like this song can be interpreted various ways, which, to me, is what makes it as glorious as it is. Upon listening to it (a thousand times over, at least) I find that I have found numerous meanings within the lyrics. Two of the most prominent ideas conveyed, in my eyes are these: 1) Death, and 2) feeling estranged (far away) from somebody. The song is titled 'light years' which sets the tone of there being great distance, whether that means physically (deceased) or mentally (estranged.) I think the song plays into both. The lyrics "you could have been standing next to me, and I'd have never known" sways the idea both ways. In the deceased theory, it could mean that they are a ghost, and could be literally standing right next to you (as a spirit) and you'd never know. In the estranged theory, it would mean that you could be standing right next to a person (a significant other, perhaps) and yet you'd never know, because of how distant and removed they are, maybe you've fallen out of love, or grown so far apart that you feel like you don't even know them anymore, or you've taken one another's presence for granted and overlook each other. The chorus lyrics "oh the glory of it all, was lost on me, till I saw how hard it'd be to reach you.." to me, means that the person has taken this (deceased or distant) person for granted, taken their time with them for granted, and they are now realizing what they lost because of the absence (physically or mentally) of the person, and the finality of never being able to speak to, or connect with them the same again as before. Overall, the song is absolutely heartbreaking, yet phenomenally beautiful nonetheless. I've yet to stop listening to it, and I have deemed it my new favorite song from The National. Feel free to reply with your theories of the songs meanings, or let me know if you guys took away from the song what I did. Maybe my theories were obvious, but I just wanted to share them!
Sierra Chapdelaine
Right on... thanks!! I This is the first time I listened to it and I dig it... both the song and your comments. 💜
Tragedy is inevitable. It will happen to everyone.
It's like what Sarte said , Tragedy is the essence and the mechanism the humanity. It makes us more human and we know what each other goes through.
Sierra Chapdelaine I couldn’t agree with you more! ❤️
Thank you for this comment, the song made me cry irrefutably exactly because of this realization I won't be able to reconnect to someone very special in the same ways we used to and your comment has given me words to understand better. It's another wave that hits me so to speak, the first one being the break up, and it still hurts but less than before, so I guess I'm healing. Still, I deserve a moment to feel sad and mourn about losing the ability to make more fond memories as each others' significant others.
It's about (Crack)addiction: Everybody was lighting up in the shadows, alone
One of my favorite bands of all time. Thank you National. You NEVER disappoint me.
to all here i love you and feel the same feeling we are all not alone best of luck to all dont stop trying to be happy
Oh, such a painfully beautiful visuals !!!
Whoever you are, wherever you are, my love to you..
The cycle of life. So beautiful. So sad. So hauntingly touching. The National at their very best ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
I feel like I just watched an entire life go by without me.
That is pretty much what this is. This video is a way cut down version of their short film. The short film was pretty cool and sad and you get only a taste of it from this. If you like this video, you should try to see how you can see the I Am Easy To Find short film. They played it before their concert in Toronto recently. I was lucky to get to see it. There are also alternate version of the album songs with female singers that are only in the film.
@@ItsWhatever24 I would love to see the film and a concert. I'll just have to see what I can do. Thanks.
@@ItsWhatever24 thank you!
They posted the film on their channel now
Man, that piano melody is absolutely beautiful.
**sorry my bad english**
This song it's like a angel's wings touch...
I’m reading “dandelion wine” by Ray Bradbury right now and this vibe just crushes me with the nostalgia… overwhelming
I read that book some years back (more than half a lifetime ago at age 14) and really loved it, great writer!
(And love The National and this song too, but particularly paired with this video, I feel it might be their saddest one)
First time seeing this video and hearing the song I have felt so moved. Literally moved to tears. Such a powerful song that shows life’s fragility and how we need to take some time to breathe and appreciate everything that we have, no matter what stage or path we are at. I always find myself listening to The National at night and let those kind of big life questions float around.
I remember listening to the album "Sleep Well Beast" during a harsher and darker time in my life and the emotions from the track were basicly what I was feeling at the time. Now my life is getting better, every song so far from 'I Am Easy to Find' reminds me that life is beautiful and this new music has made me cry. I can't wait to purchase this album that day it comes out and starts a new chapter in my life through The National.
Anyone else here from "This is us"....?
That's not how I discovered this amazing band but it brought me back.
"YOU OWN ME" is one of my all time favorites that I haven't thought about in far too long. ♡
The National does not have a song called You Own Me. Are you thinking of Lucky You?
come here from La Brea, nice music❤
Same 👏🏻
The National is creating another masterpiece. Bravo. Speaking to our soul, once again. With such gratitude and love.
Truly!
There's so much raw emotion in this track that can elicit a different response from anyone listening based on your experiences, memories, and overall journey with The National. One of the simplest piano driven tracks but yet takes the listener to a different plane.
Its their most emotionally charged song for me
This Is Us Season 4 Premiere brought me here. Loving the show, enjoying this great song..
Canberk Girgince me too! Song is great. ❤️
Me too 🥺
There's a 'Pink Rabbits' vibe to this record I can't escape--and I STILL LOVE that song to bits to this day. 'Trouble Will Find Me' is such a great record.
This song touches me in many ways. I think it's about how short life can be and how quickly the stages of life go by - childhood, adolescence, adulthood. You grow up, go to college, get married, have children, grow old and pass. These stages of life are inevitable. Whatever stage we are now will pass - so might as well cherish the moments we have with our loved ones. I love how the actress is dancing - playing - singing in between the important moments in life - letting it be. Alicia is a phenomenal actress. Did this music video win any awards? I think it should.
"And I would always be" part gets me harder every time I listen to this beautiful piece of art
This song makes me so nostalgic for my childhood. it brought back the memories vividly and tears to my eyes
I feel you!
You live one infinite yet finite life in this song.
love that piano in the background... great song!
Sorry to be nitpicky, but its not in the background at all, its very much in the foreground. its the lead instrument in the song.
@@wowno5763 absolutely true!
Listen to "Cardigan", from Taylor Swift, produced by one of The National's musicians. It has very similar piano, but her song is less sad. I recommend it, though ! :)
Light years away.. such a beautiful euphemism for being totally disconnected from others (or a significant other). No human being can travel the speed of light. To feel as if one is “light years” away truly (in intellectual and poetic perspective) describes the feeling of knowing you’ll never be understood and may never understand another regardless..
Band of my life. Light years away from watching them live. 😢
Well, I just watched this while I’m at work, it was hard not to cry. I remembered my relationship with my deceased father... I never imagined “Light Years” was about family and now it all makes sense!
It reminds me of my dad who died from cancer. The part about being 10 feet behind reminds me of being a little girl. The whole song just kills me. I have so many questions that I'll never get to ask him. So many times in my life when I really needed him there.
@natania abreu and @danielle bailey , the same for me. The first thought and the last and all in. between when I am listening to this song over again and again is my father who I miss every day more and although I am still waiting for him to come back, I will never see him again. May they rest in peace and may we carry them with us with all the heritage they have left to us.
@@ioannapavlidou9314 My dad liked to go fishing, so I took my son out the other day. I hadn't went since I was about 17. On the walk back to the car I was ugly crying and trying to keep it all in. I'm happy nobody noticed.
@@dbmomma85 I feel you so much. Almost every day I discuss with him in my mind and we do jokes and I ask for his opinion. I still cannot go back to all those things we would do together and I can't imagine that a moment will come that I will be blessed to have a son and take him to do things that I would want my father to do with us, like fishing. It hurts but I have this metaphysical crazy feeling that they must be watching us from somewhere and protect us. And that they are in a better place.
Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.The National are so real
The National's music makes me feel with every cell in my being.
There is no band on this earth right now that is capable of capturing emotion in their songs like The Nation can
We'll be hearing this song on soundtracks for years to come. Sleeper hit.
This song makes me sad and happy at the same time, The National are pure music
OH IT BEGINS, I AM READY TO BE HURT
I started feeling wounded as soon as the first piano lick began!
Again
Already cried today, 10/10
I found this song by chance and now it has penetrated my entire soul.
same. I also just discovered 'once upon a poolside' give it a listen if you haven't its so beautiful and melancholic
even tho it would be light years away from you, i'll keep you in God's hand. you'll be safe and surrounded by many love you won't ever waste. if it's meant to be, it'll be, Dzai.
My husband played me this song and I fell more in love with him. I haven't heard anything like The National. They sing my teenage years so well
The first time I listened to this I wanted to cry but it gets better after the 5th or 6th time. A hauntingly beautiful song.
mike mills, alicia vikander and the national... that amazing feeling when your favorite artists collaborate with each other
In this life you can not control the actions of another human being because they are very unpredictable. At best... you can find people who respect who you are... acknowledge what you’ve been through... and only want ‘better for you. If at least two of the three sentiments aren’t attached with this person....walk away, to alleviate the triggers that take you back to self harm. Stay light years away.
My wife just recently had a miscarriage and this song conveys the feeling of being light years away from something that felt so close to changing my life for the better. I really have been having a hard time and hope to one day not feel this sad/depressed anymore. This is a beautiful song and is helping me cope with the immense loss.
...and now I'm crying at work... thanks National.
Can't listen to this song without picturing my beautiful Oscar. You were taken too early my sweet boy 💖💖💖
I was at the Homecoming show in Cincinnati when they debuted this song, (according to Matt Berninger,) and cried my eyes out. Such a beautiful song.
The perfect soundtrack for these times.
every now and again a song just catches the moment. Thank you The National.
I can feel the nostalgia and isolated love on it like ROMA
I love both of them soooo much
This Is Us brought me here. What a raw and wonderful find.
That’s nice! Is this your favorite song?
This is the most beautiful song released this year. Can't stop listening to it!
Hope you never stop listening😉
The serie "La Brea" brought me here, and oh gosh how I'm thankful! This song is just beautiful, I'm tearing up...
Everyone was lighting up in the shadows alone
You could've been right there next to me, I'd have never known
Looooved that bit 😍
I know it means smoking, but seeing it written made me think of people lit up by their cellphones- could be right next to one another and never know it
Emily Bennett same. Immediately thought and still think it’s primarily a drug reference, even a very discreet social critique. But I also thought later on, within the context of interpersonal distance, about how people in parks at daytime are on devices in every direction, literally speaking. At night they’d just look like a bunch of fireflies, all together but each alone like stars blinking off and on in a galaxy.
Whooooa so that made me think so much deeper about that line entirely. Very thoughtful of you guys Emily and Graham. I agree, I detest where our world is heading with social media and phone addiction. I've been right next to loved ones, said something to them, and they've not heard me or acknowledged me because they were too far gone on their phones. It makes me so so sad to think we're going to raise a generation of socially inept screen addicted fools. Matt is quietly raging. "Everyone was lighting up in the shadows, alone/You could have been right there next to me/I'd have never known" he's criticising himself for zoning out of reality and buying into social media consumerism. Then the next line "Oh the glory of it all/was lost on me" he's criticising the perceived glory and achievement of social media to connect people, when it is actually moving us further and further apart. Then "til I saw how hard it'd be to reach you". He fully understands the gravity of the social ineptitude of not being able to communicate with someone right next to him (presumably he means a loved one being the subject of this song) This might be just me reading into this and correlating thoughts you guys helped me find and galvanise in my head, the song might have an entirely different meaning. This is just my analysis I guess@@grahambartley8321
Thank you this is us...
For bringing me here
I swear to the universe that this song was made for me 😞