I was totally pumped for this album to come out after listening to the tracks that preceded it, and I wasn’t disappointed in the slightest. It took me a few listens to really fall in love with it, but that’s the case for any really good record: each time you take it in, you find something new that you like.

High Violet is a wonderful set of songs in the band’s signature style, ranging from the despair-laden ‘Sorrow’ to the ringing anthem of ‘Bloodbuzz Ohio‘. I recall hearing the band comment a while ago that “this is not a happy record,” or something to that effect, and it’s true. You won’t find anything remotely like ‘Fake Empire’; Berninger doesn’t even get the chance to tear off on a ‘November’-esque scream track. This effort is more controlled, and its subject matter appreciably darker than that of its predecessors.

We’ve already talked about how much I love ‘Terrible Love’ and despite the album cut not being my favorite it does not disappoint in opening the record. That said, ‘Ohio’ might be the strongest, most powerful piece of music on the album. It is the peak that the first five tracks build to, and that which the next five tracks spend recovering from.

‘Bloodbuzz Ohio’
[ mp3 ♫ ]

A surprise for me was ‘Conversation 16′, the urgency and pace of the track wakes you up from the rather involved tracks in ‘Lemonworld’ and ‘Runaway.’ One of my favorite moments of the entire record is the drum riff going into the first iteration of the chorus, followed by the lyric “I’m a confident liar…” The timing of the song as well as strange content of the chorus really shines.

At the end of the day, there’s not a bad track on the album. The National has taken their craft to a new level, creating less frantic, more textured songs than we saw on on Boxer, harnessing that raw energy into something more complex and mature.

The National – High Violet

I was checking up on the Guster homepage, looking to see if they’re dropping any singles in advance of their new record, due later this year. I didn’t see anything quite like that, but they were pointing people to a “new song” called ‘Jonah‘ which is available as part of a benefit album for Haitian relief. They’ve been playing this live for a while now, but this is an actual produced copy that sounds pretty good. It’s not my favorite song of theirs, but the benefit album also contains a fantastic remix of Metric’s ‘Gold Guns Girls,’ as well as a live Dinosaur, Jr. track. Also, the money all goes to help out people in need, that that’s got to count for something!

‘Jonah’
[ mp3 ♫ ]

Support the Cause, Download the Record:
MusicForRelief.org // Download to Donate for Haiti

In other news, today Pitchfork TV put out a really great video of The National playing ‘Terrible Love‘ in an old, abandoned castle. I have to say that this is probably my favorite song off of High Violet so far. I didn’t care for the album version’s production as much as I did their live performance, located below, but the only recording of that was their appearance on Fallon. This video features a pristine recording of that take on the song, and I was so excited I extracted out of the video for everyone to enjoy:

‘Terrible Love (Castle Rock Session)’
[ mp3 ♫ ]

In just a few weeks The National will be dropping their newest album, High Violet, and it looks to be well worth the wait since 2007′s Boxer. I’ve included a live track shamelessly pilfered from Music the World Forgot of their performance of ‘Terrible Love‘ on Jimmy Fallon that I absolutely am in love with.

Just recently, the entire album went up streaming on the New York Times Website, along with an exhaustive but fantastic five-page article on the band. Since I know everyone’s going to hear the album, I won’t bother to encourage you to check it out, but DO take a look at the article. It gives a really intimate look at the band as a type of “family,” which I don’t think I would have guessed, knowing them just from their music.

‘Terrible Love (Live)’
[ mp3 ♫ ]

The National