It's still April, isn't it?
Can the weather stay like this the whole year? I could totally deal with 50 degrees in the morning and high 60's in the afternoon. I am just confused as to why we are going on 2 straight weeks of it in the middle of April. Whatever, I'll take it, but this is totally going to screw up my expectation of late May weather.
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I am going to start posting music videos of the new hotness over on the right hand side. There may be a funny non-music related clip here and there, but with the explosion of iPods and the death of MTV, I feel like the art of the music video has gone by the wayside. I love music, but I also love moving pictures with my music. I feel like I haven't seen a relevant music video in 10 years. So, maybe I call the feature SVTV? Done and Done, check her out.....I am good about comment reply, so feel free to comment or to ask who and what the artist is.
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Before we get started on album number 3, I feel I have to make a statement regarding how difficult it was to sort out number 4,3, and 2. I really feel that maybe I should just put them all in one area entitled 432. These are all stellar albums with at least 10 quality tracks a peice. Kings of Leon got 4 cause I respect pitchfork at least a little, and this next album gets 3 because although its a super high quality album, I feel they didn't take as many chances as the artist to be named in the number 2 spot. So they got the "showed some guts" boost over.....
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NUMBER 3- The National "Boxer" Originally from CinSINnati, OH and now working out of the Brooklyn, NY music hotbed, The National is one of the few red hot indie bands. Their music is intoxicating. You start off with just a sip here and there, really just to be polite and the next thing you know you are 3 sheets to the wind, going back over and over and over again. "Boxer" is their 4th album closely following their 3rd album "Alligator" which was a critically acclaimed top 5 album when it came out in 2005. .
There isn't much to say about this album that hasn't been said about "Alligator". The National as a musical entity practically define the term "grower". Obviously meaning the music grows on you the more and more you listen to it. It takes a bit of patience however, and you have to have musical culture outside of a pop top 40, but if you got broken in on the Nationals sound from "Alligator", you are ready for "Boxer". Not as easily as you may assume.....or as I assumed. Boxer is a more smoothed out album than Alligator, its not as aggressive and its transitions between songs and melodies are more subdued. The lyrics are a little more mature and not as zaney and sexual, but still quite weird. I know I sound like I am criticizing it, and I am a little, because I do like Alligator more than Boxer, but its because it fits my personality a little bit more, not because Boxer supplies less enjoyable music than Alligator. I sing along to Alligator, I bob my head in a very approving gesture to Boxer.
.So what does The National sound like? I honestly don't know how to define their sound. It's like lounge music's evil twin brother. So much the same on its face, and yet nothing like the original. The signature of the band is lead singer Matt Berninger's deep baritone stylings. He's talking and yet he is singing. He moves you through some kind of twisted mix of emotions and imagery of a world where love is the same, but the way you get there and exist in that moment are somehow all messed up in a paranoid but educated schizophrenic blur. Read the liner notes on this album, they are always interesting to see them as a whole rather than letting Berninger feed them to you. The music moves in and out with dueling harmonic guitars and soft percussion. The guitar work is the secret to loving the National. They work togethor and apart secretly. The more you listen, the more you are sucked in to Berningers world of emotional ups and downs without being forced there by volume and tone changes. The music is what moves while berninger stay frighteningly calm, guiding you through the distractions.
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So you get the idea. The National is an undefineable sound that takes a few listens to get into and is really really good once you do. In this case, I always suggest the car stereo. The radio sucks (unless you have satellite) and the only real moments of peace are in the car by yourself to and from your meaningless destinations. You don't listen too hard, but you unconsciously listen just enough. Buy either Alligator or Boxer and if you like it, but the other immediately.
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