The National: High Violet

Keep us posted on how this develops. This was on my shopping list, but trying to manage consumption better these days

Hope to see them soon, maybe hearing the songs live will tip me over?

Huwge, mail me (brucewoodhouse(ampersand)btinternet.com.

Bruce

Not heard the single until last night on Later and it kind of grew on me. The hooks were all there but they didn't seem to belong to the same song. It was almost like they'd been working on a template of what the constituent parts of a National sing ought to sound like.

I read one review that dud suggest that the songs on this album that sounded most like the Nstional were actually the least impressive. It'll be interesting to hear more on Friday. In the meantime it remains on the wish list but, to my surprise, it's nit top of my pay day Anazon binge tomorrow.

Mike

Apologies for the spelling. Having some sight issues at present.

I first heard this about a week ago on the New York Times site,I instantly liked the baritone vocal,have played in the car most days since I bought it!. On the strength of listening to some of their stuff on Spotify I have bought all their available albums except the E.P. can't find at my local shop.So you have guessed by now I like the new album,looking forward to discovering their back catalogue.

I haven't listened to all of it yet. The first track I liked when I first heard it, its a bit of a lo fi builder. After that it pretty well settles into familiar National territory (well the four or five tracks I heard). I didn't hear any belters in there. The difficulty for the National I think is they may have already used up much of their creative juices and are re running past glories. Sadly the earlier stuff whilst generally being of excellent quality both lyrically and musically didn't shift huge numbers. I would certainly recommend exploring their back catalogue particularly 'Boxer' which is a no brainer. My favourite track (not off Boxer) is 'American Mary'.

Live, in my opinion they are fabulous and are more fun and lively than I would have imagined.

I'll get back on 'High Violet' when I get my head around it.

Generally I find their albums to be 'growers' and this one probaby will be too. The songs are good but I think the production may throw a few people off, especially those who only came to the band on 'Boxer'. The band are on record as saying that High Violet "is not a hi-fi record" so those looking for pristeen production values might be disappointed...

I know that 'Boxer' tends to be a forum favourite but I think that 'Aliigator' is the best so far.

"Alligator" I loved immediately, "Boxer", not so - and I am still learning to like it!

"High Violet" did not grab me straight away and I agree that it was a "grower" - but it is now a grown-up! Repeated plays in the car on the way to/from work made it seem to suddenly make sense as I learned the tracks and "England" is (IMHO) as good as anything else released so far this year.

Can't wait to see them in the small venue that is Warwick Arts Centre in November.

Have a good one

Ron

Hmm, I may need to eat humble pie on this one. It's a real grower. The production probably doesn't help as it is a bit monochrome as described above but actually I suspect I may end up rating this ip there with Alligator.

Boxer had high points but in some ways it was almost too immediate for me. I suspect long term fans will get this way as it works similarly to Alligator in as much as it seems flat and one paced at first only to reveal it's depth over time.

That said, this is not the place to look for coherence. The first half of this album is the sound of s band trying to take their signature sound somewhere new. It experiments a little with texture but, to my ears, to no great gain beyond hiding the straight forward haunting mature of the song writing.

By the time you hit hhe single though they've found their feet and I begin to see where some of the admittedly laughable hype about an imminent breakthrough to stadiums has come from. The second half if hhis aspires to epic, but in that good way that misses pompous out on the way. The last couple of tracks are frankly incredible.

Stick with it. There really is much to enjoy here.

Agree that the last few tracks are the standouts for me at the moment.

The album has just entered the NZ Chart at #5 and I see it did the same in the UK. No mean feat for a band that seemed the preserve of music geeks on the internet.

My guess is that Boxer turned a sufficient number of people into fans who would (and did) buy it in the first week. The question is will that now generate enough interest amongst those who have never heard of the band to investigate further and increase their sales and fanbase? Only time will tell... I'll wait to hear if people in the office start talking about this brilliant new band they've discovered.

Quite by accident I discovered a streaming live concert of theirs on youtube over the weekend. It was pretty good.