High Violet

Rich, majestic without bombast, pensive but never heavy, driving/propulsive, orchestral but still all about guitars, drums, bass, and keys... i'm a musician who also engineers, does filmscoring, and more, and i wait for albums like this and very few come along... these days the alt/indie stuff i'm listening to is this, arcade fire's the suburbs, band of horses' infinite arms, the new pornographers' together, the black keys' brothers, shearwater's golden archipelago, deerhunter's microcastle, st. vincent's actor, and a few others... and, this and shearwater's archipelago are the only ones i return to again and again and again... absolutely cannot get enough of this album... it's all here... and it's done without the high end sonic sizzle and shallow/obvious lyrics and music of so much that's out there... the music here is rich and engaging, is never afraid of achieving interesting layers and depth without a lot of silly chord changes, and never goes for "clever"... this album has everything i love and hope for in good, creative, poetic, alt rock... rare and special... genuinely moving...

There's a droning quality to The National's sound, from the low throbbing bass and drums found on most of the songs to Matt Berninger's vocals, which even when pushing forward emotional resonance on songs like "Bloodbuzz Ohio" and "Runaway" still sound incredibly restrained as if there is a danger if he loses control. This will not be everyone's favorite sound, but I found it works very well with the songs content; songs where a little darkness seems to haunt the lyrics. From songs like "Conversation 16" with its "'Cause I'm evil" refrain and lyrics like,

"Im a confident liar
Have my head in the oven so you know where i'll be
I try to be more romantic
i wanna believe in everything you believe,"

to outright distrust of the way the media is moving on "Afraid of Everyone" this sound is an effective medium for the message. As a whole this weighty sound can wear you down a bit and an occasional lightening of it would be welcome; not everything needs to have this serious "anthem" energy, but I find this has depth that holds up well after repeated plays and new levels of complexity are constantly being discovered.

What did i just listen to?

This sounds exactly like some recycled Paul Mccartney material. Each song gets cornier and cornier by each passing minute. Boring and excruciatingly difficult to enjoy. I generally have no problems with laid back/soft tracks, but this was just wow. My ears felt empty and lifeless after listening to this. Thank you The Nation, I really thank you.

Do yourself a favor and skip this one folks.

I had never really heard to much from The National. I just saw them advertised on TV and Amazon,so I decided to get their album. I thought they were going to sound a little cliche(as far as their sound). I was a little right, but I still enjoyed the CD. It's got a nice mellow mood to it. This album isn't too awfully long,but most of the tracks are good. Blood buzz Ohio reminded me a little bit of a David bowie type sound. Which I really liked. I also enjoyed the track Sorrow, it's got a very cool industrial beat to it. It reminds me of some of the stuff U2's done in the past. Overall, I think this is a great CD and should not be overlooked by music fans especially if you like Fleet Foxes or Rogue Wave.

great band and album! but sounds better live! an example is the song "ENGLAND" when they play live use a heavenly corns and trumpets (yeah in the album too) but sounds better live, this band live is amazing!!! same for all songs... better live!

and dont know if its me but the album can be better recorded... based in the live performances... anyway an amazing album!