“Bloodbuzz Ohio” by The National

"Bloodbuzz Ohio" was a 2010 single from High Violet, the National's fifth album, and it's the band at its most wound-up. Aaron Dessner and Padma Newsome wrote the music, Matt Berninger the words, and the National produced it themselves, with Peter Katis mixing. Bryan Devendorf's drums drive it relentlessly, Scott Devendorf's bass and Bryce Dessner's guitar pile on the pressure, and Berninger's weathered baritone sits right on top, which is exactly what Pitchfork heard in its tense, slow build.

Rolling Stone's Rob Sheffield read it as a song about money and debt. It came out on 7-inch vinyl on 4AD with the B-side "Sin-Eaters", in a sleeve bearing Mark Fox's artwork. Triple J listeners voted it to 31 in their Hottest 100 of 2010, the band's best showing there, and Pitchfork later named it among the 200 best songs of the decade.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.