The beauty of Ohio based, The National is it grows on you like good pair of rainbow sandals. At first you think to yourself, this is just stiff and awkward, there is no way i could spend more than an 30 minutes with these things. But before you know it, you stick with them, and they become the most comfortable, feet pleasing, article of clothing you own! This is no understatement, and about 1 million socal OG's and 10 million wannabe's will vouch for me.
So, with The National you might at first think, is this guy serious? his voice sounds like Brendan Frasier covering some Leonard Cohen classic. Please get this picture out of your head. I am so sorry I did that to you. Anyways, the National have been around for about a decade and they continue to bring solid indy alt-rock albums that are polished enough for old folks, but edgy and complex enough for the most pessimistic hipster. The 5th installment and their latest, High Violet (2010) is close to a masterpiece. They continue the great songwriting and devastating, understated lyrics but have really matured with exceptional instrumentation and complexity. Each song is filled with layers of drum work, electic guitar, epic piano and then layers and layers of texture coming from i'm not sure what.
And now I must give The National my highest compliment. As a long time asping/failing musician myself, I often listen to music and imagine in my head what they could have added to parts of songs. like, "a little more bass melody here... add a backing string texture... drop that predictable bridge and add a new part, jamming out an outro..." something like that. But with the National's High Violet, that never happens. I can't imagine changing or adding to the songs at all. They just feel so full and complete. What comes to mind is a quote from my favorite person, It is finished.
Other things to check out by the national: song, Fake Empire. compilation, Dark was the Night.
Things not to check out: every obnoxious politcal involvement, just pretend it never happened.
- By Mark
No comments:
Post a Comment