High Violet - The National

Spiritoftheseventies · 10-05-2010 11:14pm

first reviews in. And a good rating from Pitchfork below
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/14203-high-violet/

Orizio · 10-05-2010 11:48pm

Decent album, if over-produced (to my mind at least).

Spiritoftheseventies · 10-05-2010 11:52pm

Orizio wrote: »

Decent album, if over-produced (to my mind at least).

why do you say that?

Peyton Manning · 10-05-2010 11:54pm

Runaway is my favourite song on it. This is a truly spectacular album, cannot stop listening to it.

Orizio · 11-05-2010 12:26am

Spiritoftheseventies wrote: »

why do you say that?

As in there is too much going on musically. Prefer the more stripped production on Alligator/Boxer.

Spiritoftheseventies · 11-05-2010 7:34am

I haven't heard previous two albums but this album sounds near perfect to me. Continually suprises me. In the years to come we will be talking about this in same breath of Arcade Fire's Funeral. I would have definitely put it up there with that one. Its pure quality.

Folks please note this is the last day for streaming album.

Spiritoftheseventies · 11-05-2010 8:42am

Okay to celebrate the official release date putting up one of my favourte lyrics from the song.

Sorrow
Sorrow found me when I was young
Sorrow waited, sorrow won
Sorrow, they put me on the pill
It's in my honey, it's in my milk
Don't leave my hyper heart alone on the water

monkey9 · 11-05-2010 9:02pm

They're on Jools Holland tonight!

monkey9 · 11-05-2010 9:06pm

I got this on an email from them sent to those on their mailing list

"On May 15th, we'd like to invite you to tune into Youtube at 8:00 pm Eastern time for a very exciting experiment. We'll be performing live at the Brooklyn Academy of Music Opera House and thanks to Zynch from American Express, the concert will be webcast live worldwide. All proceeds from the show will be donated to the Red Hot Organization (www.redhot.org) and we're pleased to continue supporting all of their good work fighting HIV/AIDS. The concert will be directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, who will also be creating a documentary introduction to air before the concert."

I think that's 1am, our time Sunday morning!

Spiritoftheseventies · 11-05-2010 9:19pm

Will wait till friday to hear the full set

monkey9 · 11-05-2010 10:33pm

They sang Bloodbuzz Ohio. Was a fairly weak sounding version to be honest. Matt's voice wasn't the strongest there!

A Neurotic · 11-05-2010 10:54pm

Rocked the beard though.

NapoleonInRags · 11-05-2010 10:56pm

monkey9 wrote: »

They sang Bloodbuzz Ohio. Was a fairly weak sounding version to be honest. Matt's voice wasn't the strongest there!

Agreed. To be honest I don't think the format of the show suits Matt Berenger - he's far too self conscious to be able to let himself go in that context. He regularly needs to get tanked up on white wine to go on stage!

Spiritoftheseventies · 11-05-2010 11:14pm

NapoleonInRags wrote: »

Agreed. To be honest I don't think the format of the show suits Matt Berenger - he's far too self conscious to be able to let himself go in that context. He regularly needs to get tanked up on white wine to go on stage!

Is this a known fact?

Sútalún · 12-05-2010 12:12am

Never even saw this thread.. Eh the album really is incredible. I was going to start naming my fave songs on it but it's utterly pointless. It just works so well as an album. I mean it's hard to put it on par with Boxer so early in but I really can barely fault it. It'll be on repeat over the next few days, hopefully it won't lose the initial amazingness.

NapoleonInRags · 12-05-2010 9:17am

Spiritoftheseventies wrote: »

Is this a known fact?

Lol - are we in a court of law now??

I've seen it mentioned a few times over the years - most recently in the NY Times article that accompanied the album stream. Nothing wrong with it to be honest - just might explain why he seemed nervous and not comfortable on Jools.

Spiritoftheseventies · 12-05-2010 10:06am

NapoleonInRags wrote: »

Lol - are we in a court of law now??

I've seen it mentioned a few times over the years - most recently in the NY Times article that accompanied the album stream. Nothing wrong with it to be honest - just might explain why he seemed nervous and not comfortable on Jools.

Just curious how after five albums he still suffers from stage nerves. To be fair didnt see any sign of nerves on their network debut on Letterman which I have linked on my profile page (Fake Empire reminds me of the later smiths output and a terrific song).
WIll look at show on Friday to see what the full set sounds like.

Miguel_Sanchez · 12-05-2010 10:27am

I saw them in the Olympia a few years back and Matt does appear quite uncomfortable on stage at times, especially during instrumental parts when he has nothing to do.

Spiritoftheseventies · 12-05-2010 10:31am

Jeff_Lebowski wrote: »

I saw them in the Olympia a few years back and Matt does appear quite uncomfortable on stage at times, especially during instrumental parts when he has nothing to do.

He does come across a bit introverted. But remember Michael Stipe was the same until lets say the release of Green.
But I think Matt's shyness is part of the charm of the band in how he delivers the songs.

monkey9 · 12-05-2010 11:27am

Spiritoftheseventies wrote: »

Is this a known fact?

I saw them in Whelans in 2005, i think it was, when they were touring the Alligator album and he was absolutely locked. He does a few beforehand sometimes to calm the nerves. I think he's getting better though.

But as someone said, on Jools Holland where the show goes out live and there other bands there watching, well it's not really his scene!

Spiritoftheseventies · 12-05-2010 11:34am

monkey9 wrote: »

I saw them in Whelans in 2005, i think it was, when they were touring the Alligator album and he was absolutely locked. He does a few beforehand sometimes to calm the nerves. I think he's getting better though.

But as someone said, on Jools Holland where the show goes out live and there other bands there watching, well it's not really his scene!

I'll take your word on it . Would have thought in terms of slurring the words it would have had been noticeable. Did he get any strange looks from the band members at Whelan's gig.

Sútalún · 12-05-2010 11:36am

I know it's veering off topic but there are an unbelievable amount of artists who need a few drinks before hand to give them the courage to go on stage. Obviously there are loads that don't. But I've heard of so many at this stage.. They probably get into a habit as well and feel that their performance won't be as affective without the drink.

Spiritoftheseventies · 12-05-2010 11:40am

Sútalún wrote: »

I know it's veering off topic but there are an unbelievable amount of artists who need a few drinks before hand to give them the courage to go on stage. Obviously there are loads that don't. But I've heard of so many at this stage.. They probably get into a habit as well and feel that their performance won't be as affective without the drink.

A few drinks is okay. But getting locked would surely impact on ones ability to perform particularly long term.

Sútalún · 12-05-2010 12:02pm

Spiritoftheseventies wrote: »

A few drinks is okay. But getting locked would surely impact on ones ability to perform particularly long term.

Yeah that's what I thought too.. I cannot play a single note when locked, no joke. But I know someone in well known band (in their genre) who drowns himself in drink before a gig, among other things. Guess he just acclimatizes to playing when poluted. He's not even lead singer..

Spiritoftheseventies · 12-05-2010 12:34pm

Sútalún wrote: »

Yeah that's what I thought too.. I cannot play a single note when locked, no joke. But I know someone in well known band (in their genre) who drowns himself in drink before a gig, among other things. Guess he just acclimatizes to playing when poluted. He's not even lead singer..

Yeah on final note before this goes off topic completely, heard an anec dote about Syd Barrett where there was one gig where he would play just the one note and that would be it . He just couldhnt hack the fame and took to experimenting in drugs. Author of a book about him said the band because of their middle class background couldnt tolerate it any more because they gave up good jobs and careers to be in the band. The point being that I dont think any band would put up with any member getting that intoxicated for too long when their livelihoods are at stake.