Songfacts®:

• In "Hornets," The National frontman Matt Berninger vacillates between taking on pressing relationship issues and dealing with the day-to-day challenges in life, like setting the clocks back and getting rid of hornets before the weekend rolls around.
  
  "These mundane things you have to deal with are a metaphor for your anxieties," he explained to David Letterman. "All your fears."
• The band's multi-instrumentalist Aaron Dessner wrote the music to this one. He was doing a lot of work with Taylor Swift around this time, helping her re-record her back catalog, including her album Speak Now. The "Taylor's Version" of that album was released in July 2023, a few months before "Hornets" appeared on The National's album Laugh Track.
• The Laugh Track album was a surprise release, coming five months after the band issued First Two Pages Of Frankenstein. They did most of the work on the albums around the time of the pandemic, which was particularly challenging for Berninger, whose depression kicked in. He got a lot more productive when the band was able to get together in person again and perform live.