Tuesday 27 April 2010



QBiM SPiNS: The National High Violet

I’m starting to think that every album release announced for the month of May is prefixed by “highly anticipated” but none fits that criteria for me more than High Violet from The National.  Their last LP, 2007′s Boxer will forever be on my list of favourite albums of all-time, so High Violet has some high expectations to live up to.

Though it’s not slated for a physical release until May 11, The New York Times website had the album streaming for a few days (today being the last), and I’ve taken advantage of the opportunity to get a as many listens in as I can.  There’s some lack-lustre sounding leaks of the disc floating around the ‘net, but they truly don’t do the record justice.  From the opening tones of “Terrible Love”, it’s clear that The National are in top form.  The tension and tenderness are palpable as the song could be an album all in itself.  “Fake Empire” was dethroned as my favourite National song before “Terrible Love” even finished the first time ’round, and there was still 10 other tracks to listen to.

What I loved most about Boxer was the sparseness of the arrangements, and the band’s ability to build intensity with the bare minimum of instrumentation.  The sound of High Violet is much fuller (more akin to their previous discs) and not a note is wasted.  “Sorrow”, “Afraid of Everyone”, “Runaway” and “England” are stellar, and the recently released single “Bloodbuzz Ohio” still manages to top them.  I can’t call it a maturing of sound, because The National have always come across as a band who knows what they want to elicit from their instruments, but there’s no denying that High Violet is going to be regarded as the high point of their career.  It’s the coalescence  of their sound and vision; musical perfection.  By the time “Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks” rolls around to close the disc out, I had tears in my eyes, a swelling of my soul, and my finger poised to start it all over again.  For real.

The ‘highly anticipated” High Violet is the high watermark of 2010 so far.  It’s a long way to December, and who knows what’s lying in waiting in other record companies’ release schedules, but I’d bet my bottom dollar that we’ll still be buzzing about the record for months (if not years) to come.

MP3: The National “Bloodbuzz Ohio”
Myspace: The National





by J. Di Gioia | Comments Off

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