Lucky You

I love this song. The National are really good at describing heartbreak, and failed relationships perfectly. Their lyrics are always so simple, but beautiful in a melancholy way.

I think this song is about how their relationship is ended, but he can't let her go. He can't get her off of his mind, but she has already moved on. I like the progression of the meaning for the lyrics, "Lucky You". At the begining I find them like LLridinghood said, completely sarcastic, because he means that she still has him, he won't let her go, but that's not a good thing. But at the end I find there to be more truth in the lyrics, she's lucky because she is able to move on and forget and he is envious because he's stuck thinking about her, and if anyone has ever been there before it's terrible to think of someone who you loved and hurt you every day when it seems like they just don't care.

Sorry, if that doesn't make sense... it's just what I think of when I hear it.

"but what you break is what you get"

you break it, you buy it.

she broke it's heart. she owns it.

My favorite song of theirs. All the interpretations are spot on I'd say. Saddest part to me:

you clean yourself to meet the man who isn't me you're putting on a shirt a shirt I'll never see

Totally agree with Shelbzz...

i think the Lucky You part also means that he is congratulating her because she owns him, she has done something nobody has ever done for him... kinda like: i'm yours, congratulations.. He's never getting rid of her

Lucky Her then

i don't know, that's just me...

Jbonanza is totally right. I really like the sarcasm of "lucky you" in the beginning, and the "what you break is what you get" thing.

This song is great; it just breaks mah heart. You own meh, Matt Berninger!

He simply wont let her disown him, and hes really hating himself for caring. The Lucky you is pure sarcasm. I like how honest he sounds.

jbonanza's version makes sense. "you're too smart to remember" lyrics just confirms that she is lucky to move on. This is one my favourite lyrics ever!

Almost every reference to "you" can be really inverted to reflect right back on "him."

Example: He says "Lucky You" but what he could just as easily be saying "Unlucky me." She has no more involvement in the relationship at all- he sees that she has moved on and isn't troubled by it.

Nearly everything can be turned around to examine himself. It isn't she who is never getting rid of him in doing every mundane activity such as getting a drink, it is he who goes through each part of his day being reminded of her.

The last "Lucky You" is different than the earlier "Lucky you"s. The earlier ones bitterly reference the enthusiasm that the girl at one point would have expressed if she had known that he belonged to her. Things went wrong, however, in a way that he finds intolerable and is expressed in the twist of the last "Lucky You." This last Lucky You references the harsh contrast between his inability to let go of the relationship and her ease in erasing him from her thoughts. He wants nothing more than to be able to clear his head of her, but can't. Because she can, she is the lucky one.

My take on "You wake up in the bed you make, I think you made a big mistake": He was not in control of the relationship. He feels like she found him and then broke him. I think of the phrase "You reap what you sow"- she became uncomfortable with the path that she, herself, had selected in him and then broke it off. This seems cruel to him- and he thinks it was a mistake of her to capture his heart only to break it. She shouldn't have made his bed if she didn't want to wake up in it.

Brilliant break up song.

Agree with the interpretatons. One of their most simplistic and straightforward songs, yet tender, touching and brilliant at the same time!

I absolutely love this...explanations are spot on x