I liked Boxer, I liked Alligator, but the new one, High Violet, has really bowled me over.
Its streaming at the New York Times website right now.
They took the quiet intensity of Boxer and took it up a notch. Well-crafted music, thoughtful and thought-provoking lyrics, and not a weak song out of the bunch. There's a lot going on in the music and the arrangements, but it never gets too busy to obscure the strength of the melodies. In short, the National leaves enough room to let the songs breathe and grow on you with each listen.
Favorite line at the moment: "I was afraid I'd eat your brains."
Brooding, engaging music plus zombies?!? This really is an early contender for album of the year.
WEB SHERIFF
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Hi Neal,
On behalf of Beggars, 4AD and The National many thanks for plugging "High Violet" on your site (street date 11th May) ... .. thanks, also, on behalf of the label, management and artist for not posting any pirate links to unreleased (studio) material and, if you / your readers want good quality, non-pirated, preview tracks, then a full length, high quality version of "BloodBuzz Ohio" is available for fans and bloggers to link to / post / host etc from www.highviolet.com/thenational_bloodbuzzohio.mp3 and “Afraid of Everyone” is now also available from www.soundcloud.com/ninasles/afraid-of-everyone-the-national ... .. for further details of the new album, on-line promotions, videos and 2010 shows, check-out the official site, as well as the band's MySpace at www.myspace.com/thenational and YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/user/beggars ... .. and keep an eye on these official sources for details of further news, preview material and on-line promotions.
Also and as a goodwill gesture to fans and bloggers, an exclusive preview stream of the full album is currently available via the New York Times website at www.nytimes.com/2010/04/25/magazine/25national-t.html ... .. this is for hyper-linking ONLY and for streaming by fans directly off the NY Times’ site, so please reciprocate this goodwill gesture by NOT ripping or embedding these files.
Thanks again for your plug.
Regards,
WEB SHERIFF