Since 2011, The National have released two albums, but neither of them featured “Rylan.” That song premiered when the band performed it in 2011 on CBC Radio’s Q show, and since then, it’s become a fan favorite that the group would sometimes work into their setlists. The National fans were surely excited, then, when the band shared the I Am Easy To Find tracklist, which includes “Rylan.” Now, years since its debut, The National have shared the studio version of “Rylan.”
The band previously addressed the song during a 2013 Reddit AMA, saying of it, “There is a recorded version of the music for Rylan from the High Violet recording sessions. It was based on a sketch called Fredericksburg…..another civil war battle. I don’t know if we’ll ever release that song but the lyrics and/or music might morph into something else some day.” They also said of the song not being included on Trouble Will Find Me, “We just never got around to finishing Rylan — we needed to reinvent it somehow and other songs raced ahead more quickly.”
Listen to “Rylan” above, and see where it ranks in our list of the 40 best The National songs here.
I Am Easy To Find is out 5/17 via 4AD. Pre-order it here.
