#81

Fair play for listening again - not sure why you’re getting stick for posting about, er, music on a music forum, but there you go.

I find the time signature changes can elevate their song but if they annoy you in general it’s obviously going to be hard to get past. I think the drummer Brian whatshisname always finds interesting melodies to go with Matt’s drawl.

This Is The Last Time is brilliant on every level - think you’ve been v harsh there. I’m pretty sure he’s supposed to sound bored. The lyrics are about being dragged back into a relationship he seems to know is a bad idea. The “woah-oh-ohhs” in each verse are deliberately subdued, they’re almost ironic, then there’s “I won’t be vacant anymore” in the bridge. It wouldn’t be the first time he’s sung in character.

Hard to Find is a great closer for me. Really love the lyrics (“I don’t know why we had to lose, the ones who took so little space” - not even sure how to read that line but it resonates with me somehow).

Tbh it seems like the time signature changes and weaker earlier tracks have maybe annoyed you enough to cloud your judgment on a few later tracks? Obviously it’s all subjective and anyone’s allowed to not like an album, but there’s some songs here that I struggle to see how you couldn’t like if you’re into The National’s usual formula.

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#82

I think my gripe about sequencing is perhaps the thing that is the most vital perhaps? Like, I’d never have a ‘Best of The National’ playlist as there are very few of their songs that stand up in isolation for me, they’re very much an album band, I can’t imagine just whacking them on shuffle or anything like that as their best work just flows so perfectly.

I don’t disagree that the second half of TWFM has some very good National songs and it sounds like an odd criticism but that in and of itself isn’t enough to reach their earlier highlights because of what they’re surrounded by?

I dunno, I’m really not very eloquent at expressing myself with music, I rarely get involved with music chat here as it’s a much more personal reaction to a thing than any other art form IMO.

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#83

Completely agree with that last paragraph, there’s so much personal and subjective stuff that effects your take on an album in general.

I should qualify that The National are “that band” for me. I think due to the age I got into them, their songs/albums are indelibly linked to memories and certain points in my life; this does make it hard to criticise them and I definitely give them a lot more leeway than other artists. Probably a similar thing to Radiohead for a lot of (slightly older) people here. As I said, TWFM took a long time to click for me, it was maybe only a year and a half post-release that I “got it”, and that was probably as much due to personal and external stuff as anything else, so it’s difficult to explain in writing!

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#84

Yeah, difficult to argue against that really. They are/were right up there for me as well though, they reached that attend-multiple-dates-of-the-same-tour level and there only a handful of artists I’ve ever got to that stage with.

#85

hard to describe this without it being contradictory, but I think High Violet was the sound of the band at the top of their game and most refined, but I think Alligator is probably a better album just as it’s got more of an edge to it, if that makes sense? The kind of sound and writing earlier in a band’s career that it’s intangibly impossible to recapture. Their best two anyway imo.

Boxer is great and has some of their best stuff, but for me it’s a tiny step down from what they were doing on Alligator. Similar parallels with High Violet and TWFM with a bigger gap, which I quite like but it’s my least favourite of the four though has a couple of career highlights. A lot of those songs made a lot more sense live though, especially Humiliation

will be interested to see what this one adds

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#86

This sounds like fucking easy listening

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#87

Yeah, as in its easy listening to something so badass :sunglasses:

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#88

No as in it sounds like something Patrick Bateman would like

#89

people really do talk some absolute bollocks about the national, don’t they?

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#90

Needlessly defensive, too. I like them but this is real tosh.

#91

not just you, that was just a good illustration. every time they get brought up on DiS they get a weirdly disproportionate level of hate. they’re like the american radiohead; slightly more popular than their contemporaries, so people just slam them.

#92

They should be held to a higher standard then really, and I was only being tongue in cheek with a bit of the old bombastic language anyway. Just not my bag.

#93

Can’t really get on with the vocals on it. I know this is vague, but the emphasis on the words sounds kind of sing-songy in a really forced way, particularly on the bridge. Like he’s trying to make it a fun little ditty.

Song has grown on me somewhat, particularly the production, but I listened to it back to back with some Alligator tracks and it just doesn’t hit home in the same way.

#94

They attract the same kind of hate as radiohead for the same reason : they’re big enough that everyone who likes “alternative” music has heard of them and a lot of people who define as liking “alternative” music like to pour scorn on music that everyone has heard.

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#95

And, you know, some people just don’t like the national which is fine and I get before anyone leaps on me. I just think that the reason why some people are so keen to point out that they hate radiohead and the national is to consciously set themselves apart from the herd.

#96

I would like to distance myself enormously from any perception that I’d identify as liking “alternative music”

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#97

And the big difference between Radiohead and The National is that The National never wrote a song as good as Smells Like Teen Spirit.

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#98

They’re no Garbage

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#99

Anybody else tried to get onto the presale without ordering the album? The website says you can…but if you click the link it just gets you to sign up with Facebook…then you get a message saying songkick will email you with the national info…

So I’m not sure if I’m getting a code tomorrow or not :confused:

#100

Threads got a bit

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