Non-Prog Album Reviews

 Okay, I can accept that.. but...look at the simplicity of Paul Rogers phrasing-yet he is often called the best voice in rock. For me complicated doen't necessarily mean better. But again, it's only my opinion.

Expressing an opinion is not treading on anybody's hallowed ground , so why would I object to that?  I am responding to saying "takes more than a great voice", calling him overrated and now that he's a Heath/Cobain case.  Jeff has way more facility as a singer than Bellamy or Yorke, especially in oscillating smoothly between falsetto, mixed and head voice.  He also used to play guitar while singing live and had great facility on guitar too, for your info.  I don't think most serious fan overrate him because he had a great voice or died early, actually I didn't know he was dead the first time I heard Grace and I had already been swept away.  And while Grace is not hard rocking in the Muse sense, moments of it like in Mojo Pin, the title track or Forget Her are a lot more intense than any Muse.   It is quite amusing to hear Jeff get called overrated because so few even seem to perceive the full extent of his vocal wizardry or his unorthodox adventurism as a songwriter.  

 

Boxer

by The National

12 tracks, 43 mins

 

I went down to the shops and grabbed new The National album High Violet. But before listening to it, I decided to revisit their previous two albums, both of which I consider excellent, Alligator and Boxer. Alligator is excellent and I may review it also soon but something happened with Boxer which shows how much I like it- I realised how much I love this album and am listening to it instead of trying the new one. High Violet will have its work cut out dethroning this, but The National may just have what it takes to do that.

And like a lot of the best albums, this is grower. In fact it's a grower's grower. In fact I'm still noticing new things about it, like how good Bryan Devendorf's drumming is- check him out on Brainy. But he plays that excellently without being the least bit flashy or overbearing about it. Like everything else about the band, it is subtle and understated and requires attention and time to be noticed. This is a band of real songcraft.

I was also shocked after first encountering them back in 2005 to find that they are American- there is an extremely English vibe to them, with Matthew Berninger's tranquilised undertaker voice and depressive wit and the music's reminiscence of Joy Division giving pop rock a go. The song seem to be what Leonard Cohen might produce if he tried to go commercial though as you can imagine it's still not that commercial. Still, there are tracks with a warm glow and choruses which at first pass seem indistinguishable from the verses till you begin to feel the little swells and variations The National tuck into their tunes.

 

 

Most of the album goes for a more somber, twilight feeling, the kind of thing you might listen to on a lonely bus going home late with a distant lit city skyline out the window. As well as more alt-pop-rock (Mistaken For Strangers is particularly strong with a great dumline and the most high-impact chorus of the album) the album drifts seamlessly into more unexpected territories such as the extremely sinister acoustic pub-folk inflected Green Gloves, probably my favourite song on the album. There's also the droning horns of Racing Like A Pro. What could be awkward experiments are saved by Berninger's expert vocals. His delivery and phrasing and choice of words are just right- he seems to deadpan and convey a lot of emotion at the same time, the love child of Tom Waits and Morrissey (lyrically, not vocally, though Waits' dunken aura can be felt here.)

Listen to the atmosphere his delivery creates on Brainy. It's like Interpol with good songs.

 

 

From opener Fake Empire's playing of two tempos at once to closer Gospel which moves about as much as music so quiet and undynamic could- The National create mental pyrotechnics without sonic ones- this is a deeply rich album and just about perfect. After three years, I'm not bored in the slightest. Excellently written songs performed excellently. I don't just like every track, I LOVE every track. There are no weak moments. Those who demand explosions and dramatic events may be deeply uninterested at first but I've seen this album persist and punch through to people who at first thought it wasn't for them. I can't recommend it enough and I hope that you can look past this embarrassingly gushing love letter to give it a try :)

 

5/5