Carl Sandburg Visits Me In A Dream

The much anticipated 5th LP High Violet from The National dropped back in May, and apparently to great fanfare. It opened at #3 (!) on the US Billboard 200, and garnered an eye-popping 8.7/10 from Pitchfork. Indeed, it seems that the moody rockers have appeared to hit it just right with its listeners, though this writer is not as enthusiastic. The bottom line is this: I was always fine with The National going the way of the downtrodden and dramatic artist, as long as they stuck with intriguing melodies and harmonies that almost belied the lyrics. With High Violet, that element has suredly been lost to some degree.

Briefly, some highlights (and lowlights):

“Terrible Love” – I can this being a single, and it’s true to The National sound. Not exactly my cup of tea, but I could grow into loving it.

“Sorrow” – Queue up the rainy day. Let it fly.

“Anyone’s Ghost” – Meh. The redundant chorus and the lackadaisical instrumentation don’t do it for me.

“Little Faith” – It’s been growing on me. The hovering strings and Berninger’s drawn-out drawl is fantastic.

“Lemonworld” – ‘Gave my heart to the army. Only sentimental thing I could think of.’ Gotta love it.

“Conversation 16″ – Emotive and resilient, but I wasn’t afraid of anyone eating anyone’s brains.

“England” – Urgent, melodic, awesome, epic. This is exactly the sound I was hoping for on High Violet. Lo, behold the mighty horns! Finally, I hear the strings! This song itself makes up for everything on this album.

“Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks” – The slow-rolling ballad perfectly balances the booming drums and the delicate ivory/ebony keys.

I am generally not a fan of bands releasing live content without any unreleased songs.  Though The National’s The Virginia – EP does have a few unreleased songs, it still reeks of a band trying to capitalize on newfound popularity.  But it’s The National, so I’ll let it slide.  That said, I wanted to share with you a few tracks from the album.  The first is “Mansion on the Hill” is a slow-rolling, ‘Ada-esque’ track that will ultimately leave you breathless in the wake of its beauty.  “Tall Saint” is certainly a more urgent and charged piece that reminds you that The National haven’t lost that edge from Alligator.

Buy The Virginia – EP here (comes with a DVD!)

Listen to “Mansion on the Hill” (4.6/5)  Matt Berninger! Matt Berninger!

Listen to “Tall Saint” (4.5/5) Matt Berninger!

2. Jens Lekman – Night Falls Over Kortedala

You may recall me referring to my man-crush on Jens Lekman, and nothing has really changed since then. Lekman’s sage-like wisdom about life and relationships always comes across with the utmost earnestness (and comedy). Lyrically, NFOK is certainly interesting, with the situational “Postcard to Nina” or the comically romantic “Your Arms Around Me”. Discopop tracks (“Sipping on the Sweet Nectar”) combined with funky fresh tunes (“Kanske Ar Jag Kar I Dig”) make for an album that has only one rival from the entire year. Cheers, Jens. More on Jens Lekman here.

Listen to “Your Arms Around Me” (5/5)

3. Andrew Bird – Armchair Apocrypha

What an amazing year it has been for His Birdness! While not touring around the country for his incredible Armchair Apocrypha, Bird has been busy taking with his violin. Complete with lush stringed instrumentation, Bird’s lilting vocals, and the addition of Martin Dosh’s stylings, Armchair Apocrypha lends for music that (as some have described) may cure some forms of cancer. Bird also finally tackles the various analogs between himself and the namesake of his last name–he seems to have embraced his birdness in the end. Click here for a really great post on the album.

Listen to “Dark Matter” (5/5) [via Sound of Marching Feet]

4. The National – Boxer

I know everybody and their mother has put this album pretty high on their albums of the year, but the bottom line is that it is justified. Matt Berninger’s vocals conjure up images of an earnest poet who has plenty of worthy things to be said. Berninger throws around such vivid, subtle imagery ( ‘Standing in an empty tuxedo with grapes in my mouth’), that it often takes a keen listener to pick them out over the symphonic, horn-glazed tracks. Boxer is a collection of emotive and dynamic songs that uniquely find a way of coming together as a document of the everyman’s conscience. More on The National here.

Listen to “Ada” (5/5)

5. Iron & Wine – The Shepherd’s Dog

The Shepherd’s Dog seems to take influences from everywhere, from the dusty trails of ghost towns to the asphalt paths of boisterous cities. It’s an album that celebrates the extroverted and the reserved, one that appeals to the ears but sings to the soul. Each track has a sparseness to it, but yet the multi-layered richness of Beam’s voice and his plethora of instruments add an incredible voluminousness each song. This album simply doesn’t miss. More on Iron & Wine here.

Listen to “The Devil Never Sleeps” (5/5)

I’ve always had dreams of driving late at night with only the city lights accompanying my twilight excursion through darkness. These dreams seem strange to me in retrospect, as if they were missing something integral that would make them more realistic, tangible. I just assumed that if I were driving that I’d have a soundtrack to go along with the trip–nothing bombastic or ornate. I would want something soft and brooding-something that would begin slowly and gradually build up into a symphonic crescendo without being too dramatic. What I needed for these lacking dreams was Boxer, the new album from The National.

I must admit that I wasn’t a huge fan of The National’s prior release, Alligator–I found it static, stagnant, and relatively uninteresting. But I doubt everything I decided a couple of years ago after Boxer. From the get go, Matt Berninger’s baritone vocals are perhaps the most fascinating set of pipes I’ve heard in a while, as I try to draw comparisons but come up empty. His voice conjures images of an earnest poet who has plenty of worthy things to be said. Berninger throws around such vivid, subtle imagery ( ‘Standing in an empty tuxedo with grapes in my mouth’), that it’s a shame that it sometimes gets overshadowed by the symphonic environment that the band creates. But what may be even more impressive is the way the quartet can suddenly shift from blaring trumpets (see “Ada”) to the soft chords of the piano with such grace. Indeed, The National know how to make their sound work for them, employing a variety of instruments and some interesting rhythms as well. It seems to me that they have a real appreciation for the music they’re creating–something that gets lost in the mix most of the time.

So I’ll stop the babble–go and get Boxer.
Check out these videos.
Listen to “Ada” (5/5)
Listen to “Squalor Victoria” (4.8/5)

I want to do something a bit different for CSV since there seems to be a sudden flood of great new music and videos. Since summer is fast approaching, I thought I would cancel the class reading for today. However, I still expect you all to look over this concise study guide. It’s so easy some might call it cheating! You might want to put it on the inside of your nalgene or program it into your ti-89 or something clever like that for the test. Just don’t get caught!

The Video Countdown:
5. Tokyo Police Club – “Cheer it On”
4. Beastie Boys – “Off the Grid”
3. Spoon – “The Ghost of You Lingers”
2. Mutemath – “Typical” check out the making of the video
1. The Chemical Brothers – “Do it Again”

The mp3 Countdown
5. Rocky Votolato – “Postcard from Kentucky”
4. Travis – “Selfish Jean”
3. White Rabbits – “The Plot”
2. The National – “Fake Empire”
1. Elliott Smith – “High Times”

Extra Credit: The Basement – “I Just Caught a Face”

If you’re just so studious that you can’t bear taking a day off from the required reading check the archives. There has to be something you missed. Cheers!