The National – “Your Mind Is Not Your Friend” (Feat. Phoebe Bridgers)

The National – “Your Mind Is Not Your Friend” (Feat. Phoebe Bridgers)

Did y’all ever listen to “Walking On A String,” the Matt Berninger x Phoebe Bridgers duet from 2019’s Between Two Ferns movie? Shit was hot — hotter than anything on Berninger’s 2020 solo debut Serpentine Prison, and maybe even hotter than anything on the National’s 2019 offering I Am Easy To Find.

Is it hotter than “Your Mind Is Not Your Friend,” the first of the high-profile collabs teased for the National’s forthcoming First Two Pages Of Frankenstein? I’ll keep my thoughts on that private for now and leave it to you to decide. The song, one of two Bridgers duets on the new LP, is one of those languishing piano ballads the band does so well, which puts it right in Bridgers’ sweet spot. “Don’t you understand?” she harmonizes with Berninger. “Your mind is not your friend again/ It takes you by the hand/ And leaves you nowhere.”

“Your Mind Is Not Your Friend” arrives with a video starring Berninger’s brother, Tom, best known as the filmmaker behind the 2014 National documentary Mistaken For Strangers. Establishing a brotherly theme, the video is directed by Bridgers’ brother, Jackson, who previously helmed her “Garden Song” video. Watch below.

First Two Pages Of Frankenstein is out 4/28 on 4AD.

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