For the two or three of you out there reading this blog, you probably have a pretty good grasp of how much I love The National. Sure, I share my affection for quite a few bands, but with each release The National creep more and more into my conscious and slowly penetrate my layers of resistance, spreading the infectious sounds and lyrics like a plaque into my psyche. It all started with Alligator and “Secret Meeting” with the line “…I’m sorry I missed you, I had a secret meeting in the basement in my brain.” With this song vocalist Matt Berninger, backed by a talented and creative group of musicians, sets the tone for the character driven work that is to follow for the next few albums. Each recording reads like a novel, with the main character delving into the every day realities of existence with human emotional interaction, based loosely in intimate relations, weighted in real life experiences, but delivered in bar room conversation poetry.

While we’ve gotten up close and personal with Berninger’s character over the past two albums, the third chapter will reveal a side that might come unexpected albeit dark and brilliant. How real this character is, will be left to Berninger himself, but the result on the upcoming release High Violet is a complex revelation of the humanity that exists in many of us who chose to try to understand that which is “us”.

High Violet hits legal next week on May 11th.

“Sorrow found me when I was young. Sorrow waited, sorrow won. Sorrow, they put me on the pill. It’s in my honey, it’s in my milk.”

“Cuz I don’t wanna get over you”

This song is really one of my favorites, and is a gateway to a great album.

MP3> The National ‘Bloodbuzz Ohio’

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 6th, 2010 at 8:47 pm and is filed under mp3's, recommended, Releases.