“Most of the National's songs take linear paths, and “Don’t Swallow the Cap” is so head-down and arrow-straight it qualifies as Krautrock. In this instance, it's inversely proportional to Matt Berninger’s lyrics, which are often loopy and complex and even more averse to a straight reading than usual here. He lays out the conflict in fairly legible terms—“I have only two emotions/Careful fear and de”
