The National-High Violet

I've made up my mind to become a little bit more familiar with some of the artist I will be seeing at Bonnaroo, so here on out, I guess it will be a full-on road to Bonnaroo review-a-thon. I'm excited about it, and you might be marginally interested. I guess I'm freaking out over 'Roo a bit, but it's a good feeling, so I won't be slowing down anytime soon.

I first heard about The National from my sophomore year Geometry teacher. The guy loves a lot of the same music that I do, and he's seen U2 over twenty times in concert. That's a heck of a lot of money. The National were the spur of a conversation of bands we don't know well, and the band floated around my sub-conscious until the buzz about their new album came out, and I got a hold of it. At first glance, or listen, I was kind of perplexed. I mean, the band wasn't bad, but nothing was blowing me away. But, that was just the ADHD talking. I never sat down and listened to the album. Now that I've finally given it the light of day, I've been pretty impressed.

The National don't have an interesting story at all. They are just a band that began in Ohio, finally formed in New York, and have been putting out albums over the last 15 years to high critical acclaim. Good enough for me.

This album still isn't my favorite album of all time. It seems to lack a lot of glimmer. There isn't much that imediatley draws you in. All it leaves are great big orchestral rock tunes that focus as much on meaning and moral as they do music. I've spent the morning looking over lyrics, pondering meaning, and letting the music affect the whole thought process. I have a tedious habit of putting little to no emphasis on lyrics, and what a song is for. I love the music, and I love band's who focus on the music. This is not to say that The National doesn't put their all into the musicality. Lawd no. The band produces quietly emphatic sound gardens, very similar to Grizzly Bear. Their gentle distortion cries out to be played in cathedrals, not bars. The music is a place to ponder about things. I especially love the horns that creep in and out of the music, like a mist that is there one minute and gone the next. And somehow, through all of the effort put in the music, the lyrics still shine the brightest. They are very loosely coherent and understandable, but that leaves listener interpretation and application. The lyrics reach into sub-conciouses and connects to little things in every one's life, with no two listeners sharing the exact same view of the art. Isn't this what great music is supposed to do? Heck, it's what art majors live for.

A lot of the songs on High Violet are depressing. The singer shares nuggets of his sorrow filled life, and occasionaly throws in his two cents on the ordeal. The fast pace, tinny guitar'd "Sorrow" opens with these poetically beautiful, but harshly lived words.

Sorrow found me when I was young,
Sorrow waited, sorrow won.
Sorrow that put me on the pills,
It's in my honey it's in my milk.
It's only about half a heart alone
On the water,
Cover me in rag and bones, sympathy.
Cause I don't wanna get over you.
I don't wanna get over you.

People connect to that. That is real. The song is not optimistic, because not everything in life is. The song itself completes, instrumentally, what a lot of Cold Play can't produce. The distinct howling in much of the background, and the gradual build of piano, strings, and bass, before the sudden break off, is scintillating.

The albums' biggest hit, "Bloodbuzz Ohio", is one of the song's I don't really connect with that well in words, but the music is outstanding. If you were to remove the drums and bass from the song, you would be left with a prayer of gently swooping melodies, and quiet disposition of the singers mind. The rhythm section propels the song into an energetic plea, instead of the otherwise reverently somber poem. As I said earlier, there is nothing fake in the ability to grab listeners for the right reasons. There are no gimmicky stops in sound, or key changes. The music is powerful just the way it is, even if you don't notice at first.

The opening song on the album, "Terrible Love" is a brilliant, rhythm morphing, group crooning, nonsensical travel through the solitude of the singer's love. The song builds and builds and builds until it bursts at the hinges. It just stops, like a euphoric malfunction. It's nice though. It leaves your mind open for what's left of the album. At one point, the sea of sound dies down, and the singer just repeats, "Company, It's quiet company, It's quiet company". High Violet is just that. It is the quite company to the sorrowed, depressed, and the out-of-ideas. It is reminiscent of the past, without hope for the future; a spot everyone falls into. Interestingly enough, the album doesn't leave listeners with this. The last song, "Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks", assuredly leaves with the message, "All the borders are risin', Still no surprisin' you, Vanderlyle Crybaby Cry, Man it's all been forgivin', The swans are all swimmin'". With those lines, The National sail its patients of heartbreak out to sea, with a brighter future lying in the distance.