Songfacts®:

• This song finds Matt Berninger pursuing a relationship to escape his own lack of direction. He warns his paramour:
  
  "Whatever you do, listen
  You better wait for me
  No, I wouldn't go out alone into America."
  
  Berninger is married to Carin Besser, a former fiction editor for The New Yorker, who has often contributed to the band's songwriting and backup vocals. Berninger told Coup de Main magazine: "'Karen' is very much about my wife, whose name is 'Carin' - I protected her innocence by changing it to Karen."
• Other The National songs that Carin shows up in include:
  
  "City Middle" ("Karen, take me to the nearest famous city middle. where they hang the lights").
  
  "Looking for Astronauts" ("You know you have a permanent piece of my medium-sized American heart").
  
  "Conversation 16" ("I tell you miserable things after you are asleep").
  
  "I Need My Girl" ("In a week we'll be together. Try to call you when I'm landed. I need my girl").