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)

The National - Terrible Love

I’ve been slowly getting into a huge lust over The National’s High Violet. I’ve been lucky enough to see them live twice now and I think just that – seeing that energy, that passion, that amazing spirit – has moved me into digging even deeper into their music than before. Compared to the way Boxer starts, many would say the new opener was a slump but “Terrible Love” is a downright classic and I’ve finally realized that. It’s got the heart of a champion and the bitter re-telling of sordid advice. They sing about how it “takes an ocean not to break” and it highlights the many themes they cover on the album: drinking, adulthood, love, etc. And even still, it’s a divisive opener because there are other versions that for some sound better than the album version.

I think the drums on the alternate version – with the way they relentlessly pound away and the way they mix in different amazing rhythms – would’ve been a more ‘signature’ way for The National to open the album. Something like “Secret Meeting” or more sure-fire, like the “Fake Empire” magic that broke them through onto the other side, it probably would have made more ‘sense.’ But then you have the album version’s murkiness with the opening piano notes and more somber, subtle drum pound. When the music breaks into the section where he’s singing about he “can’t sleep without a little help,” the breakdown in the middle is gorgeous before he announces that he won’t follow her into the rabbit hole. The thing about The National’s lyrics is that they’re never printed anywhere so a lot of the lines could be blurred out for intended purposes. The haziness of the song is what makes the album’s leading songs, especially with the back-to-back hits of “Sorrow” and “Anyone’s Ghost” that much more compelling. I love the imagery of how “It’s a terrible love and I’m walking with spiders” and how he probably knows it’s a terrible, horrible mess of a relationship he has and yet, he’s already well deep in the spider-web. It’s just a small glimpse as to why they’re such a great band and why their main man’s songwriting is so beautiful to many. Here’s both versions for fun. – Bryan

The National – Boxer

So yeah, fall is coming soon. It’s colder, everyone’s getting allergies, people start going through mood swings, football makes people bicker, work becomes a constant wear just to get by, life seems a grind that always seems to hurt, etc. OK, so maybe that’s just for some of us but nonetheless, this all feels interesting. The National are another fall band to take note of: swelling chords, a baritone vocalist, creative drumming and gorgeous progressions. Boxer was their breakthrough in 2007 that everyone still loves to this day – it’s affecting and moving and most of the time, breathtaking. I’m counting down the days before I see them live on Sunday at ACL but it seems too far away.

I mean, “Slow Show” still remains as one of my all time favorite songs – even just simply for that ridiculous coda. The lyrics are forebodingly mesmerizing and everything seems to just fall into place. While the strings come from the sides, at the core is this lulling, lifting, lovely melody about being with your beautiful lover and having fun spending nothing but each other’s time. You know, like hurrying home to her, cracking her up and just being near her and oh yeah, the ending I mentioned earlier: “I missed you for 29 years.” Here is a fan-made video to the song:


I wanted to post about “Fake Empire,” too, because this is an awesome rendition of it on the Letterman show. There was still a quiet buzz about this album before it hit the scene in 2007 but just through moments like these, it was all the more astounding. The growth of the song, the pounding of the drums and the way it all hits together is brilliant but even more so, the sheer cacophony of sounds at the end has to be worth something right? I mos def think this is some of the best music of the past five or so years, don’t you? I don’t know, maybe I’m crazy, maybe. – Bryan

The National - High Violet

This is easily one of my favorite bands currently making music and I’m amazed at their ability at combining so many relative, topical and poignant themes into one amazing ball of superb musicianship. And their music is the kind of music that just grows on you, like moss on a tree. Before you know it, you love the album and songs far more than you did a few months ago. Though I’ve been living with this one for a good month now, it didn’t connect until most recently.

The band is clearly highlighting how our lives are these black and white pictures with some gray sprinkled in and in the end, we’re fortunate if any color can find a way to break on through. Again, themes about dealing with life’s transitions – whether from high school to college, from adolescence to adulthood, from party animal to hard-worker driving the morning commute – are all delivered through the best possible music. But it’s those songs about love loss, where you find out that the one you love doesn’t love you in the same manner and how in the end, you “don’t want anybody else,” that hit the hardest.

Here is “Bloodbuzz Ohio,” about returning home but focusing on the negatives, instead of the love that is there and realizing that you’re way too far in debt to be pulled out of the water. And being carried home in “a swarm of bees”:


And here is the gorgeous “Anyone’s Ghost” (the song that I described about loving someone and they not returning the love, or being incapable):


Best album of the year? Well maybe so far…then again, Flying Lotus’ album is downright astounding. – Bryan