Finally, on their fifth album, The National are facing the recognition that ten years of unfazed dedication deserve. It’s a realist’s desolation, and at times allegorical of the trial they have faced in the search for recognition. Yet this desolation is instrumented so masterfully, and voiced with such candid emotion, that their sound becomes a glorious addiction. One feels the need to know what’s paining this baritone cynic, be it the debts of adulthood (“I still owe money to the money to the money I owe”) or the weight of pressures (“It takes an ocean not to break”). ‘High Violet’ is an unrestrained, naked declaration of all that worries the modern American man, imprinted on some of the most affectionate and grandest rock music you’ll ever hear.
Best Bit: The utmost of dark misanthropic humour on ‘Conversation 16’.
Words by Joe Zadeh