"Apartment Story" is a song by

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

-based indie rock band The National from their fourth studio album, ''

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''. The song was released on November 5, 2007 as the album's second single. The single's

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

is "Mansion on the Hill," originally recorded by

Bruce Springsteen Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American Rock music, rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Nicknamed "the Boss", Springsteen has released 21 studio albums spanning six decades; most of his albums feature th ...

on his 1982 album ''

Nebraska Nebraska ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Ka ...

''. The band's cover version was recorded live on January 14, 2006 at the opening night of that year's ''New York Guitar Festival.'' The band performed "Apartment Story" at

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studio on May 19, 2007 as part of the channel's ''

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'' 24-hour marathon special. The band also performed the song on ''

The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson ''The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by Scottish actor and comedian Craig Ferguson. This was the third iteration of the The Late Late Show (American talk show), ''Late Late Show'' franchise, airi ...

'' on September 26, 2007. In November 2007, '' Q'' featured "Apartment Story" in their list of 50 Essential Downloads. A month later, the song ranked #5 on ''

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s "Top 50 Singles of 2007" list.

Reception

"Apartment Story" received generally positive reviews by music critics. ''

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'' writer

Rob Sheffield Robert James Sheffield (born February 2, 1966) is an American music journalist and author. He is a long time contributing editor at ''Rolling Stone'', writing about music, TV, and pop culture. Previously, he was a contributing editor at '' Blen ...

said of the song, " en attBerninger murmurs, 'We'll stay inside till somebody finds us,' it's both romantic and terrifying, and the drums kick it all the way home." Jamie Harper of

MusicOMH ''MusicOMH'' (stylized as ''musicOMH'') is a London-based online music magazine which publishes independent reviews, features and interviews from across all genres including classical, metal, rock and R&B. History ''MusicOMH'' was founded an ...

described the song as "moody but beautiful. Laced with melody, but understated." Tom Milway of '' Drowned in Sound'' said it "hits the listener with another distinctive and expertly performed drum line courtesy of Bryan Devendorf," and called the song "another radio-friendly slice of The National." On the other hand, David Moore of ''

Gigwise.com ''Gigwise'' is a British online music news site featuring music news, photos, album reviews, music festivals, concert tickets and video content. Founded in June 2001, the site is based in London, England. History Gigwise was launched in 2001 in ...

'' said that "after about ten plays it creates a personality for itself and you start to get it, but ten times is a lot." He added that the song "works much better inside the album than it does a stand alone track." However, Moore did note that as an introduction to the band, "it's a perfect place to start."

Music video

The

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

for "Apartment Story" was directed by Banner Gwin, and was released in September 2007. Filmed in the basement of a church a few blocks from Berninger's Brooklyn apartment, the video features the band's friends and family as extras. Berninger said the band "wanted to capture the sweet but awkward vibe of a wedding reception or singles mixer." He described the video as "something between

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and

Krzysztof Kieslowski Krzysztof () is a Polish male given name, equivalent to English ''Christopher''. The name became popular in the 15th century. Its diminutive forms include Krzyś, Krzysiek, and Krzysio; augmentative – Krzychu Individuals named Krzysztof may cho ...

." The video is reminiscent of the ''

'' cover photo, which depicts the band performing at producer

Peter Katis Peter Katis is an American Grammy Award-winning record producer, audio engineer, mixer, and musician. Katis is best known for working with alternative and indie rock bands. He works primarily out of his own residential studio, Tarquin Studios, ...

's wedding. "Apartment Story" ranked #14 on

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's "50 Best Videos of 2007" list.

Track listing

;UK 7" vinyl (BBQ 407) # "Apartment Story" – 3:44 # "Mansion on the Hill" (Live) – 4:36

Charts

References

External links

* {{authority control 2007 singles The National (band) songs 2007 songs Beggars Banquet Records singles Songs written by Matt Berninger Songs written by Aaron Dessner