The National – High Violet Pt. 2/3? ---- England -------

I’ve been blasé about it all lately. About writing, about the blog, about the way it all works. It’s not necessarily an entire waste though. Lately some of the lyrics on this album have continued to creep in. This album is still one of the best albums last year had to offer. There’s probably newer stuff we could discuss, until then here’s some words on “England” here.

There’s a sort of stomping presence throughout – this type of relentless beat that mimics a sort of heartbeat filled with emotion – and as the music builds and builds, the beat’s momentum follows. I love the way the piano melody is heard towering above and intertwined with the soaring vocals and it acts as part of that stomping presence. They guide the song through a massive amount of sounds and tones that eventually disperse for a resolute ending. The same piano melody begins it all and each texture comes flowing in: the stirring strings, the thumping drums, the chugging guitar, the amazing words.

Personally, it sounds like they’re evoking some kind of love for what London must feel like, through metaphors like rain, loneliness, runners. They’ve mentioned runners before so it makes sense to me when he sings, “Someone send a runner through the weather that I’m under, for the feeling that I lost today,” that he feels as if life is just passing him by. The words most likely feel like wanting to have a love in your life because of all the emotional pull you go through. A lot of the themes on High Violet encircled adulthood, finances, growing and breaking relationships and they were highlighted with subdued shades of gray and charcoal. As a sensitive adult, there is a lot of interesting layers to the grind and being able to feel them and encompassing what they mean, while wrestling with what we want, and ensuring we get what we need, The National simply know how to pinpoint all of that so utterly well and “London” is just more of that amazing presence. – Bryan


(Above pic: Chelsea bridge in London //// Nothing associated w/ The National or High Violet...Chelsea FC #1)