"Abel, come on. Give me the keys, man."

I like to make lists in that annoying Rob Fleming (High Fidelity) fashion: best Bob Dylan covers, top ten favorite films, greatest 80s songs not used on the Top Gun soundtrack or featured in a John Hughes movie, etc. But most important and dear to my heart is my top ten favorite songs of all-time list: a constantly evolving undertaking roughly eight years in the making. Last week I knocked off the Cure's "Just Like Heaven" at the tenth spot for a song by the National I haven't been able to shake since 2005—the deliriously crazed "Abel."

A loosely depicted narrative about the aftermath of a string of bad events that leads the narrator to loose all sense of control, "Abel" is a pounding whirlwind of emotion encapsulated by the simple and repeatedly screamed phrase "My minds not right." The song is anthemic in many ways, but it's not the type of chorus you can sing along to without seeming slightly manic or unbalanced—and yet that's precisely what makes it so perfect.

The National - "Abel" (from Alligator)