Plumbiferous Media

Just over ten years after Brook­lyn indie band The National was founded, the band has released its fifth LP, High Vio­let. Over those ten years, the band has become pro­gres­sively better-known, cul­mi­nat­ing in their last release, the crit­i­cally acclaimed Boxer. With High Vio­let, The National has taken its suc­cesses from each of those ear­lier albums and dis­tilled them into the log­i­cal pro­gres­sion of that work, cre­at­ing a new album that is more than any­thing else a success.

With High Vio­let, The National has con­tin­ued its ten­dency towards reserved but active instru­men­tals. Quiet, care­ful bass lines underly each track, empha­siz­ing the emo­tional impact of the track expertly. Fol­low­ing their tra­di­tion, nearly every track on High Vio­let is beau­ti­fully intro­duced, with per­haps the best exam­ple being “Eng­land,” whose slow, soar­ing intro­duc­tion sets the tone of the entire track. Though The National does tend to use a cer­tain sort of instru­men­tal back­ing, the band is good enough at that and its end­less sub­tle vari­a­tions that it never becomes stale. Com­bined with exper­i­men­ta­tion such as “Ter­ri­ble Love“‘s lo-fi approach, this keeps the album inter­est­ing (and quite a bit more) throughout.

As with The National’s ear­lier work, front­man Matt Berninger’s bari­tone runs deep through High Vio­let, both intro­duc­ing the sto­ries that form the core of High National and tying together the music itself. Berninger’s into­na­tion of each line rings through the sound, lend­ing an impres­sive depth to the music while at the same time imbu­ing it with the emo­tion. Through­out the album he moves along a range of tones, from the bit­ter non­cha­lance of “Lemon­world” to the deter­mi­na­tion of “Run­away,” giv­ing the already excel­lent lyrics the emo­tional back­ing they need to work perfectly.

With High Vio­let, The National has suc­ceeded at telling truly inter­est­ing sto­ries, each of which takes real­ity and con­sid­ers it with imagery which, when com­bined with Berninger’s voice, results in a pro­found nar­ra­tive through­out the album. At their core, The National’s sto­ries of real life are mun­dane - and much more relat­able for it. It’s the word­ing that makes the dif­fer­ence. As Berninger sings “I gave my heart to the Army / The only sen­ti­men­tal thing I could think of… / But it’ll take a bet­ter war to kill a col­lege man like me,” it’s hard not to imag­ine the char­ac­ter he’s singing about, just as “Sorrow“‘s “I live in a city sor­row built / It’s in my honey / It’s in my milk” cre­ates such a clear image of sad­ness. Nearly every word of High Vio­let car­ries such an immense emo­tional weight, and it cer­tainly shows.

High Vio­let is, quite sim­ply, an excel­lent album. The National has com­bined expertly formed instru­men­tals, Berninger’s vocals at their best, and its usual lyri­cal depth to cre­ate what is cer­tainly one of their best albums (a close match with Boxer). Even with­out the com­par­i­son to The National’s other work, High Vio­let is a tri­umph, and quite pos­si­bly one of the best albums this year.

This post is tagged 90-100, The National