The National – New Order T-Shirt Lyrics

I keep what I can of you
Split-second glimpses and snapshots and sounds
You in my New Order t-shirt
Holding a cat and a glass of beer..

How you tapped on a box of blue American Spirits
At Anyway Cafe a little under a month
Before the ashes and management capital files filled the streets
How we wove through the cones walking home
To the place on Atlantic you shared with your hilarious sister
Kicking off your black flats, demolished and laughing

[Chorus:]
I keep what I can of you
Split-second glimpses and snapshots and sounds
You in my New Order t-shirt
Holding a cat and a glass of beer

When you rescued me from the customs cops in Hawaii
When I shut down the place with my Japanese novelty bomb
And your dad came along
How you had me lay down for a temperature check
With the cool of your hand on the back of my neck
When I said, “I think I’m finally going crazy for real”

[Repeat Chorus]

You in a bath on the phone
Telling somebody that maybe they’re better off leaving
Than staying in it alone
You in a bath on the phone
Telling somebody that maybe they’re better off leaving
Than staying in it alone

When you cried at the beach and recovered in seconds
And said everything’s fine, but I knew that it wasn’t
Then you stayed out of reach of me for almost a year
How you looked like a poster of a ’70s movie
Standing outside at the base of your magazine skyscraper
Waiting for me to go drinking downtown

[Repeat Chorus.] X2