‘Mistaken for Strangers‘ by The National

You have to do it running but you do everything that they ask you to
cause you don’t mind seeing yourself in a picture
as long as you look faraway, as long as you look removed
showered and blue-blazered, fill yourself with quarters
showered and blue-blazered, fill yourself with quarters

You get mistaken for strangers by your own friends
when you pass them at night under the silvery, silvery citibank lights
arm in arm in arm and eyes and eyes glazing under
oh you wouldn’t want an angel watching over
surprise, surprise they wouldn’t wannna watch
another uninnocent, elegant fall into the unmagnificent lives of adults

This is one of my favourite tracks from the CD I just bought which is Boxer by The National.
The song sounds magnificient even before you delved into the lyrics. But the droning and slightly cynical voice of the band’s frontman is enough to pique your curiosity on the message he was trying to convey. It turns out fortunately to be a message that I could relate to.

The National is a band made up of members who were also professionals with day jobs ( in New York, according to wikipedia). This makes their lyrics more relevant to the average you and I twenty/thirty-something professionals who listen to music, as compared to listening to nu-rave upstarts like The Klaxons. The lyrics of this song particularly struck me, being someone who entered the workforce about a year ago. I see friends who turn generic and lifeless inside the rat race. It is a pity that many are of the opinion that to gain maturity is to lose their zest for life and their own identity.
Does getting a grasp of the real world require total abandonment of your own principles and ideals?
Is success merely skin deep, and more of a superficial parade of your affluence through clothing, cars and whatnot?
I was told otherwise, but I look around and my observations have swayed my judgement.

The National, as I said, is a band whose image always comes across as regular guys like you and me. Being of a more mature age, their songs also laments the perils of adulthood such as the loss of innocence, marriage, painful relationships and so on.
Listening to their songs, I hope that 10 years from now, I can still see a glimmer of youth, once abundant, in my friends from school and university. Conversely, I am worse at gauging myself than others on how much I have “turned adult”. Some may say that I have changed, but then again I find myself still trying to hold on to what I had and still have. It remains to be seen if that’s a good thing or otherwise. Until that moment comes when I have to throw them away, I will still be hanging on to it.