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The Decision: The National's Journey out of Ohio (Part 1)

Posted at 10:59 AM on July 30, 2010 by Mac Wilson (4 Comments)

Nataional Press_nicholasburnham.a.jpgWith the National coming to town next week to play a pair of shows at First Avenue, I figured I would finally get my thoughts in order and attempt to write an extended piece about the band and their new album, High Violet. The project soon ballooned to cartoonish lengths, so I opted to split the piece into two parts. The thrilling conclusion will be posted Monday, but today, I thought I would start to assess the root of the National's appeal, and how one rock band could inspire such complex thoughts in the first place.

600px-highviolet.jpgIt's quite possible that the band with the highest number of fervent admirers amongst the Current staff is the National. No fewer than half a dozen staffers (myself included) have gone on the record as being enormous fans of the band's work, past and present. When assignments were being handed out to do CD of the Week reviews, the National's latest record, High Violet, got snapped up in under 30 seconds (I can understand Barb Abney's enthusiasm; she and the band share an original hometown of Cincinnati and it must be a particular type of excitement for her to watch the band reach higher levels of success). The level of devotion within the Current ranks is similar to that displayed by the band's legions of hardcore fans around the world. I identified five major factors that factor into the National's appeal:

1. They are awesome.

2. They are not, however, immediately awesome.

While the National's music is immediately accessible and enjoyable, their charms unfold on an almost subliminal level. Basically, it is music to listen to again and again, music that is constantly providing new revelations and feelings that seem to bubble up from nowhere. Entire stanzas can go unnoticed (or are altogether unintelligible) for the first 15-20 times you listen to a particular song, before abruptly bursting through and making you re-evaluate the entire piece. "Getting into" a new National album is a lot of work, but not only are the rewards off the charts, they keep coming...and coming...and coming...

3. With relatively little fanfare, the National have built an elaborate internal mythology within their songs. Matt Berninger's lyrics often feel tossed-off, filled with non sequiturs and strange imagery, yet after listening enough, connections begin to form with other songs. As a result, the listener hangs on every word, seeking not just meaning, but also counterparts in the band's catalog. Of course, the supposed connections may be a myth altogether, with each song explicitly serving as its own short story. (More on this later.)

4. The National give hope that "rock music" still has a future. If you're as disturbed as I am with the prospect of chillwave being the Next. Big. Thing. in pop music, the National utilize the classic rock band formula: vocalist, two guitarists, bass player & drummer - and utilize these tools in a way that feels organic and forward-thinking. The National are what modern rock SHOULD sound like, if the idea of 'modern rock' hadn't been so thoroughly corrupted over the decades.

Alligator-NationalX_The_480.jpg5. While the band has remained humble, there is a complete effortlessness to their sound. Somewhere between Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers, which was a good-but-not-great record, and 2005's Alligator, they simply became great. By being exactly who they are, and doing what they do, they are still better than anyone else. Like fellow Ohioans Guided by Voices, the National give credence to the great rock n' roll myth that the greatest band in the world is five guys playing in some warehouse. In the bottomlessy cynical business of pop music, sometimes a band gets popular for no other reason than that they are a great band.

(I can't believe how quickly that devolved from an outline of the band's strengths into weepy fanboyisms. I'll try to stay on point from here on out, I promise.)

2001_Gosford_Park.jpgThe National's work often unfolds with a literary richness, complete with unresolved crises, cloaked motivations, and unreliable narrators. Their breakthrough, Alligator, reminds me of the short stories of Raymond Carver, in which desperation often leads to angst, substance abuse, and tragedy. A number of Carver's short stories were compiled into the collection Short Cuts and adapted for film by legendary director Robert Altman. This connection is relevant because the follow-up to Alligator, 2007's Boxer, has strong Altman-esque undercurrents. To me, Boxer feels like Altman's Gosford Park, in which the actions of numerous characters are observed in the context of a single event: in Gosford Park, it was a hunting party at a rural English estate, while in Boxer, one could argue that each song is centered (loosely or expressly) around the wedding depicted on the album's front cover.

(thenational-boxer.jpgIntriguing side note: as revelers come and go on the Boxer cover, the band themselves stand brightly lit onstage, lending an omniscience to the actions of others. Seriously, the Boxer/Altman connection is something I'll probably one day write a book about)

The National's new album, High Violet, certainly steps out of the shadows into a bigger, more accessible, and more user-friendly territory; I once described the record to a friend as (with no derision intended whatsoever) that the new album was entry-level National. It seems like a fairly standard collection of songs, certainly ripe with themes but never feeling story-oriented. An autobiographical reading of High Violet finds Berninger ostensibly coming to grips with commitment and loyalty in the wake of the birth of his child; while he is fearful for the future, one gets the feeling that he will make the right decisions in the end. As an entirely, or at least mostly, fictional collection, the band treads the same territory of sadness, disappointment, and soul-searching. Another friend told me that while he loved the album, it was the mopiest record he'd ever heard. People magazine, in their 3 1/2 star review, suggested the album "for fans of Twilight"!! While it was a wonderful album, almost universally hailed by critics, it still felt a little hollow, like the band had consciously come up just the slightest bit short.

Of course, if there is a #1 rule for listening to the National, it is this: there is always more to the picture than it seems. Listen again, and again, and again. We know this because of the precedent the band has set: Alligator and Boxer only fully began to bloom after dozens of listens, so High Violet deserves the same diligence and persistence. They have earned our respect. So I kept listening, again and again, and as the summer wore on, new dimensions and clairities began to emerge, particularly in light of a slowly rumbling freight train of a story coming out of the band's native state of Ohio...

Check back on Monday for an exegesis of High Violet, intertwined with a gargantuan metaphor that sheds new light on the album.

Comments (4)

Thanks for such a thoughtful post! It seems like every new analysis/review I read of the new National release is regurgitated from the last...which is to say full superficial comparisons to other bands. It's inevitable I guess, now that they've been somewhat catapulted into indie superstardom, that a band with such a complex appeal and whose albums are remarkably nuanced won't be given a justice by a reviewer whose 500 word album review is due the day after it's released.

That said, I'm looking forward to your thoughts on this conundrum of a sleeper-hit.

Posted by Kevin | July 30, 2010 1:40 PM

I was trying to figure out what to download next from emusic==now have Alligator and The Boxer. In the olden days, getting a new record meant putting it on the turntable and listening to it without doing anything else. I think I'll try that with these two. Thanks for sharing somethign about WHY you all think so highly of this band.

Posted by Joanna | July 31, 2010 7:06 AM

Thanks for your notes, Kevin & Joanna. I think the nature of the music-writing business is so fast-paced that, as you say, we get caught up in describing the music to the point where we overlook fundamental aspects like the WHY. Descriptors are fine, to a point, but my intention was to dig a little deeper, so I'm glad you enjoyed.

As an aside, I was looking through the Facebook photo album from a friend's wedding, and all I can think of is the songs from Alligator and Boxer. I'm National-ed out for the moment (you'll understand when the Part II behemoth drops tomorrow) but the wedding motif is something I'd like to explore further.

Posted by Mac Wilson | August 1, 2010 7:28 PM

Good piece Mac. Look forward to reading the second installment. I think, for me, the appeal of the National lies in the slow reveal within their music-like you mentioned, the nuances and lyrics that become clearer the more you listen to the songs. In this day and age where music is continually at our disposal, through legal and illegal means, it becomes tough to fully immerse yourself in an album before you move on to the next thing. I'm as guilty of it as anyone, and it's disheartening for me to immediately love an album but then discard it in favor of what's new and what's next. And that's what makes listening to the National so rewarding for me-these records reward repeat listens, bringing you deeper into the world that Matt and the gang create. That's not to say that the National are unique in that respect (every good record reveals more to the listener on repeat spins), but I find myself going back to listen to their albums a lot more than other modern bands, giving them the proper attention that their music demands-which, in turn, reminds me of the (unfortunately) bygone days of playing an album over and over until I've memorized every lyric and melody. They were simpler times, really, when we weren't so inundated with new music. Not that I'm complaining, but it's nice to spend some quality time with an album without thinking of what else is out there, and the National have always done that for me.

Interesting side note about the Boxer album cover-I believe that it's an actual photograph of the band playing a wedding reception of one of their friends, who requested they play "The Geese Of Beverly Road" at their reception.

Posted by Erik T. | August 3, 2010 11:35 AM

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