For those who don't know The National, they're an American band on the fast track to becoming this generation's Joy Division. How this turns out for them... well, time will tell. Control is not a film that needs a spiritual remake so soon. Bloodbuzz Ohio, the hit single from High Violet was one of my favorite songs to come out in 2010; so I bought the album and checked out what else The National had to offer. So here it is, High Violet, Track-by-Track.
Track 1 - Terrible Love
Terrible love and I'm walking with spiders? Clearly the lyricist of The National was an Art Student at some stage, this is the kind of lyric I expect in an early REM song, the kind with a wonky video of an art instillation. This kind of vague but evocative lyrical poetry is pretty much standard for the National as we'll see throughout the album. Once you can get over the non-literal wording and listen between the lines, this is a beautifully sad song about the end of a relationship. The protagonist is walking away from a person he loves because the love is no longer returned; the love he feels is now a "terrible love". The song builds into a complex crescendo with The National's beautiful piano work and guitars with the fuzzbox cranked up to 11. Having been dumped by someone I loved, I really feel the lyric "It takes an ocean not to break", this song is stunning. Still not sure about the spiders though.
Track 2 - Sorrow
Depression can be a touchy subject for a song, but the hopeful tone in the lyrics of Sorrow manage to prevent it from being something to drink yourself to death to. In some ways a follow-up to the previous track, Sorrow repeats the phrase "I don't want to get over you", and tries to illicit sympathy for its loss. I'm typically not a fan of being sorry for yourself and that makes Sorrow on of the weaker tracks on High Violet for me, but as a follow-on from Terrible Love, it works fine.
Track 3 - Anyone's Ghost
I have a feeling that The National are taking us through the stages of grief caused by an ended relationship. If that's the case, Anyone's Ghost is the anger song. Before I go on a little about me; I'm an angry guy. I don't hide my anger from people and I crank up the Punk Rock to get my blood pumping, I get a kick about being angry. As Johnny Rotten said, "Anger is an energy". The National clearly don't how how to be angry at someone. Continuing the broken relationship theme, the protagonist is remembering the betrayal that I assume ended the aforementioned romance. Mildly annoyed by this, he resolves not to follow the person around like a ghost, even though he "don't want anyone else". I have to admit that thematically, The National are losing me at this point, but everything else about the song is still at a very high standard.
Track 4 - Little Faith
I have to say, fuzzbox guitar and piano is not a combination I would have thought of, but The National do some nice work with it. Little Faith is the "I need to get the hell out and blow off steam" part of a breakup. What? You don't get that feeling? I sure as hell do. But this being The National, getting out and cutting loose is a somewhat maudlin exercise, true release being unattainable and the entire attempt simply being a practical experiment in impotent self-esteem. Not that the song's not well composed, I'm just having trouble getting into it.
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