Released - 5/10/10
Label - 4AD
BLURB - Don't really see what the fuss is about with "High Violet." I wasn't in early on The National and I haven't listened to them before this album - but at the very least wouldn't you say that gives me more of an objective opinion? Every review I've seen for this album glorifies The National is this sacred, holier-than-thou, group that simply can do no wrong. I think it's safe to say that I'm the only one on the other side. "High Violet" at it's best is boring and at it's worst makes me feel like I'm having blood drained from my body. The painfully slow pace and lack of creativity is painful to sit through, while the ominous deep vocals all but make me want to go back to Best Buy and return it. Why is this good?
Rating - 2 out of 10
FULL STORY - In much of what I've read, the indie community is raving about the lyrical content and maturity on "High Violet." The simple problem here though is that the music is virtually unlistenable. I'd almost prefer if The National released a novel - that way I could just read it. The music itself is constantly stagnant and never materializes into anything outside of a slow trickle of acoustic guitars and organs. Compounding the awfulness are the vocals...if you can call them that. It certainly isn't singing. The majority of the vocals appear as a faint spoken word dialect that is presented in the most depressing of manners.
The first four tracks, arguably all sound the same aside for the drumming patterns. I was extremely excited when I first put this on my iPod and was all set to catch the subway to work. I hit play on 'Terrible Love' and within a matter of thirty seconds I was already looking to skip ahead. I thought maybe this was the obligatory slow opening track what would become an amazing album. The entire song is a fog of distorted guitars and pianos that can't move slow enough. And as for the lyrical content - the whole song (for the most part) just repeats, "It's a terrible love and I'm walking with spiders." This is supposed to be high poetry I guess.
So I skip ahead to 'Sorrow' and I'm instantly depressed. It's slow, it has no energy, no emotion - it just kind of sits there doing nothing. I guess you could say it's kind of clever in the way that sorrow is personified through various analogies and metaphors - but I'm listening to an album, not taking part in a mandatory English class in eleventh grade.
"Sorrow found me when I was young. Sorrow waited, sorrow won. Sorrow put me on the pills, it's in my honey, it's in my milk."
So after I contemplate jumping in front of the G train that is approaching the Greenpoint Avenue stop I skip ahead. Keep in mind I've listened to two tracks already and haven't managed to get through either. "Anyones Ghost" is slightly more uptempo but equally depressing. The chords and song structure pull you down and refuse to let you do anything aside from gaze at your shoes. The lyrical content once again is fairly grim as Matt Berninger tells of his credo that he never wants to be anyone's ghost.
Skip ahead to 'Little Faith,' (see a theme developing here?) and we have another song that sounds the same as the previous three. It's at this point that I realize this album is not what I expected it to be. Maybe because I haven't been a long time devoted fan I'm not able to attach myself to the music, I don't know.
The only song I was actually able to get through on the album was 'Bloodbuzz Ohio.' Here the pianos, guitars and pounding snares actually all synch into a song that isn't half bad. There are moments where the song intensifies and you can actually feel some emotion. The song actually varies and, unlike the rest of "High Violet," is not static at all. The track also has vocals that are somewhat less robotic than the others. Maybe it's because the music actually rises to the occasion and matches the emotion that is found behind Berninger's pen.
Outside of 'Bloodbuzz Ohio' this album really doesn't do it for me. It's too boring. Too mundane. Too soft. Too slow. Too uninteresting. It's too much of everything that I can't stand about indie bands that climb to prominence for no particular reason. The National should have just released "High Violet" as a twelve chapter book and called it a day. I can't be the only one that thinks this...can I?
Tracks
1.) Terrible Love
2.) Sorrow
3.) Anyone's Ghost
4.) Little Faith
5.) Afraid of Everyone
6.) Bloodbuzz Ohio
7.) Lemonworld
8.) Runaway
9.) Conversation 16
10.) England
11.) Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks
12.) Walk Off (Bonus Track)
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