The National’s ‘Turn On Me’ Is A ‘Game Of Thrones’-Inspired Slow Burn

Today, Columbia Records and HBO have finally released the compilation album For The Throne (Music Inspired By The HBO Series Game Of Thrones). The full album drop comes a few weeks after tracks by Maren Morris and SZA, The Weeknd, and Travis Scott were previewed ahead of the full record. The compilation album features, as its title would suggest, music inspired by the final season of the landmark HBO series. Apart from Morris, SZA, The Weekend, and Scott, new songs by Ellie Goulding, Rosalía, and more can be heard on the record. It’s Game Of Thrones-inspired, so they’re all either slow burning and vengeful or vaguely ominous.

The National are no strangers to the Game Of Thrones universe. The band recorded a haunting version of “The Rains Of Castamere” back in 2012, and their contribution to the compilation album is equally memorable. “Turn On Me” pretty much just sounds like a regular song by The National, but a great one. Over a piano and drum-driven melody, the song builds from quiet discontent to burning intensity. The song is full of Game Of Thrones-inspired imagery — “Do leaves fall down in perfect sentences? / Do maggots crawl your name?” The National’s new record I Am Easy To Find is out May 17 via 4AD.

Listen to “Turn On Me” above.

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