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High Violet - The National

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    #122
    JesseCuster
    Registered Users Posts: 62 ✭✭JesseCuster


    My word, "England" is astoundingly good.

    A wonderful album, lives up to all my expectations


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    #123
    Aridstarling
    Closed Accounts Posts: 650 ✭✭✭Aridstarling


    Picked up my copy of the violet vinyl today. Its damn purty.


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    #124
    Spiritoftheseventies
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,082 ✭✭✭✭Spiritoftheseventies


    Aridstarling wrote: »
    Picked up my copy of the violet vinyl today. Its damn purty.
    First review in the Dubliner from Eamon Carr which is free in todays herald. Picture accompanying it is strange. The two brothers the splitting image of each other. Assuming their twins.


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    #125
    monkey9
    Registered Users Posts: 20,337 ✭✭✭✭monkey9


    Spiritoftheseventies wrote: »
    First review in the Dubliner from Eamon Carr which is free in todays herald. Picture accompanying it is strange. The two brothers the splitting image of each other. Assuming their twins.

    You assume correct. One of them, i think it's Aaron, is the main songwriter. Matt writes the lyrics.


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    #126
    Sútalún
    Registered Users Posts: 688 ✭✭✭Sútalún


    I don't think I've ever been this affected by an album to early on in its life. I was out last night, a lot to drink, ended up in some you wan's house. Next morning I wanted to leave the house, but not for the normal reasons. I wanted to walk around town listening to High Violet. As I was fumbling around for my earphones I actually got excited because I was going to listen to the album again. In all seriousness..


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    #127
    monkey9
    Registered Users Posts: 20,337 ✭✭✭✭monkey9


    Sútalún wrote: »
    I don't think I've ever been this affected by an album to early on in its life. I was out last night, a lot to drink, ended up in some you wan's house. Next morning I wanted to leave the house, but not for the normal reasons. I wanted to walk around town listening to High Violet. As I was fumbling around for my earphones I actually got excited because I was going to listen to the album again. In all seriousness..

    Ha ha, i love that sh!t. I remember a couple of years back, i woke up on a Saturday morning still drunk from the night before and i needed to listen to Boxer. I just had to. The day was not going to continue until that album invaded my eardrums!!

    They're the kind of band that once you get into them, you really really get into them, almost obessed!


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    #128
    monkey9
    Registered Users Posts: 20,337 ✭✭✭✭monkey9


    At the moment, this would be my order of ratings:


    11. LITTLE FAITH

    10. ANYONE'S GHOST

    9. LEMONWORLD

    8. Terrible Love: This song as suffered, imo, in that we all know what they could have done with it after hearing this performed on the Jimmy Fallon show. It's a lot slower that it should have been. This kind of plods along, compared to their performance on the show. In saying that, it's still brilliant.

    7. CONVERSATION 16 - I just love it when they get to the part when Matt sings "I was afraid i'd eat your brains...........cos i'iiiiimmmmmmmmm evvvvillllllllll"


    6. BLOODBUZZ OHIO - The first single, i think, to be taken from the album. Consistantly brilliant, this song was a big help in bridging the gap towards their album release when they released it as a free download.

    "i was carried to Ohio in a swarm of bees"



    5. ENGLAND - An epic beauty. I think this should have been the opening track. Maybe the reason it wasn't is because, when it fades in and the opening piano chord strikes, it sounds very very slightly like Fake Empire which was the opening track on Boxer.



    4. AFRAID OF EVERYONE - As usual with this band, they have great lyrics combined with melody. "With my kid on my shoulders i try, not to hurt anybody i like. But i don't have the drugs to sort, i don't have the drugs to sort it out. To sort it out".



    3. SORROW - A heartbreaking song. Someone on Boards described this as teenage angst lyrics. And yeah, i can see where they are coming from. But it doesn't matter what age you are, when Matt sings this, coupled with the band behind it, it's beautiful. "Don't leave my hyper heart alone, on the water"

    I really love the line "Sorrow's my body on the waves" I just love the imagery of that.



    2. VANDERLYLE CRYBABY GEEKS - When the chorus kicks in, i find it impossible not to join in!




    1. RUNAWAY - "What makes you think i'm enjoying being left to the flood. We got another thing coming undone and it's taking us over. We don't bleed when we don't fight. Go ahead, go ahead, throw your arms in the air tonight."

    When he sings this line, even if i'm walking through town with the earphones in, i just want to sing along with it, no matter who hears me. In fact, i just want to grab someone and say here, listen to this. It's unbelievable!


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    #129
    Peyton Manning
    Closed Accounts Posts: 16,658 ✭✭✭✭Peyton Manning


    This album is utterly, utterly special. I've never been so immediately impressed with a record than I have with this one. Each song is magnificent, charming, slightly upsetting yet gloriously rewarding in it's own way. Best album I've heard in years, possibly since the turn of the century imo.


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    #130
    Spiritoftheseventies
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,082 ✭✭✭✭Spiritoftheseventies


    Yes catching them now on Joolz. Not sure on the brass section on Bloodbuzz Ohio but good version there.


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    #131
    1967
    Registered Users Posts: 431 ✭✭1967


    Outstanding album,not a bad track to be heard Sorrow is just superb.


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    #132
    Placid_Casual
    Registered Users Posts: 530 ✭✭✭Placid_Casual


    A very fine album but not sure if i'd go quite as far as some of the adulation on this thread. Watching them on Jools and wasn't that impressed by Blood Buzz but they're playing Terrible Love as I type and it hits the album version out of the park!


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    #133
    Crumbs
    Registered Users Posts: 1,080 ✭✭✭Crumbs


    "Your VOICE is swallowing my soul, soul, soul"

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m1qCcjDk6Q


    (...with Sufjan Stevens!)


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    #134
    The Pontiac
    Registered Users Posts: 3,417 ✭✭✭The Pontiac


    + 1, a brilliant album. Not a single bad track on it.


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    #135
    Spiritoftheseventies
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,082 ✭✭✭✭Spiritoftheseventies


    Crumbs wrote: »
    "Your VOICE is swallowing my soul, soul, soul"

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m1qCcjDk6Q


    (...with Sufjan Stevens!)
    That was a very good performance there. Matt really put a lot into the vocals there.


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    #136
    GoWithTheFlow
    Registered Users Posts: 58 ✭✭GoWithTheFlow


    From 'Afraid of Everyone' this album goes from good to greatness!

    Lemonworld is my current favourite, beautiful lyrics.

    "You and your sister live in a Lemonworld
    I want to sit in and die
    Losing my breath, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo"


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    #137
    Spiritoftheseventies
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,082 ✭✭✭✭Spiritoftheseventies


    Okay this from the NME who gave it 8 out of ten. Also a link to track " about today" as well on their radio station
    Seems Aesop was really on to something with his hare and tortoise tale: it’s taken a decade for The National to ferment a hard-shelled cocktail of personal confession and prickling diffidence that deserves to make them fabled. Those whose regular nocturnal pursuits encompass glowering at a cruel world through part-drawn curtains while glugging back cheap Shiraz flocked to the quintet’s side after previous full-lengths ‘Alligator’ and ‘Boxer’. Now ‘High Violet’ is about to entice a whole new batch.

    Darker and more introspectively brooding than ever, in places it’s the most immediate National effort since their overlooked eponymous debut. Sidestepping studio sterility, it’s imbued with crackling vivacity that’s unusual for a band at this stage in their careers. It’s apparent straightaway in the hum of opener ‘Terrible Love’, where aching harmonies swarm around trademark percussive crescendos and subtly arranged orchestral splendour.

    Yet it’s still a grower like its predecessors; lyrics that jump forth seldom rival those that emerge from the mist several dozen listens down the line. Matt Berninger’s droll baritone intonations are a goldmine of pithy insight; laconic, adorably insecure and dotted with genuinely enigmatic non-sequiturs. Yet there’s a continuing sense that the band look down on moping, or at least at moping done without a wry smile. So for every ‘Sorrow’ (sample sentiment ‘I don’t wanna get over you’), there’s a ‘Conversation 16’, wherein Berninger pops pomposity by deadpanning, “I was afraid I’d eat your brains/’Cos I’m evil” like The Misfits gone lounge.

    Proving maturation beyond doubt, where their lyrics once enveloped twisted relationships and, prior to quitting their day jobs, office-toil hell, now moments like ‘Afraid Of Everyone’ allude to parenthood’s perils. No cheery paean to reproduction, Berninger hoists his “kid on my shoulders” before the stark, spine-chilling realisation that “I don’t have the drugs to sort it out”, ending utterly broken and vulnerable. Just when you fear the mood is unrelentingly bleak, however, single ‘Bloodbuzz Ohio’ arrives, overflowing with bombastic charisma and a longing for the open road.

    Goddamn it’s taken a while, but with ‘High Violet’ The National’s slow and steady evolution can no longer be ignored. This lot are fully grown-up, coloured in and going overground. And if the masses aren’t ready by now, they probably never will be.


    http://www.nme.com/reviews/the-national--2/11286


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    #138
    Sútalún
    Registered Users Posts: 688 ✭✭✭Sútalún


    Decent review. Can't stand NME though. Their reviews are utterly inconsistently a massive pile of muck. I'm getting afraid that I'll get tired of the album. So far so good though. Re-listening to Boxer and Alligator too just to make sure it stays reasonably fresh!


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    #139
    Spiritoftheseventies
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,082 ✭✭✭✭Spiritoftheseventies


    Yes have listened to album about five times now and am very wary of over playing it. Less is more as they say. Btw what song does "about today" come from


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    #140
    Sútalún
    Registered Users Posts: 688 ✭✭✭Sútalún


    Spiritoftheseventies wrote: »
    Yes have listened to album about five times now and am very wary of over playing it. Less is more as they say. Btw what song does "about today" come from

    What album ya mean? It's from the Cherry Tree Ep which was released before Alligator I think. Haven't listened to it in a good while. I know a track or two were on it that were brought onto Alligator too.


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    #141
    Spiritoftheseventies
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,082 ✭✭✭✭Spiritoftheseventies


    Sútalún wrote: »
    What album ya mean? It's from the Cherry Tree Ep which was released before Alligator I think. Haven't listened to it in a good while. I know a track or two were on it that were brought onto Alligator too.
    Yes listened to some of the earlier stuff via NME radio. Not as strong as latest stuff. Wiki page says they have only released something like six or seven singles. Is that right?


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    #142
    Sútalún
    Registered Users Posts: 688 ✭✭✭Sútalún


    Spiritoftheseventies wrote: »
    Yes listened to some of the earlier stuff via NME radio. Not as strong as latest stuff. Wiki page says they have only released something like six or seven singles. Is that right?

    Yeah they don't seem to be big on singles. Ah Alligator and Boxer especially are amazing, probably not as accesable as High Violet. Love their first album too.. My mission in life is to see them live!


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    #143
    Sivski
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13 ✭Sivski


    The National is easily the best band in the world right now and has been for a long time. But I'm a bit of an obsessive fan so the objectivity has gone out the window...
    The last time I saw them live I actually cried, I've no idea why! They're just so amazing live. You'll come away with completely different favourite songs.

    They don't bombard you with singles but I'd say they'll be releasing more with HV, this is the big 'un


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    #144
    Aridstarling
    Closed Accounts Posts: 650 ✭✭✭Aridstarling


    Spiritoftheseventies wrote: »
    "about today"

    Possibly the saddest song ever written. "How close am I, to losing you?", it just send shivers everywhere. Its just so raw.


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    #145
    JerryHandbag
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,543 ✭✭✭JerryHandbag


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h26CT_iK62g


    Another take on Terrible Love. I am frothing at the mouth thinking about this album arriving in the post to me next week hopefully. Hurry up postal service!! (not the band, the actual postal service :p)


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    #146
    Spiritoftheseventies
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,082 ✭✭✭✭Spiritoftheseventies


    This quite an amusing review of Bloodbuzz Ohio. Worth a look.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJ7htMtCxcI


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    #147
    monkey9
    Registered Users Posts: 20,337 ✭✭✭✭monkey9


    Spiritoftheseventies wrote: »
    This quite an amusing review of Bloodbuzz Ohio. Worth a look.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJ7htMtCxcI

    Just be honest here, SOTS. That's actually you, isn't it??!!!


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    #148
    Spiritoftheseventies
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,082 ✭✭✭✭Spiritoftheseventies


    I would have picked someone far cooler than that to be fair :)


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    #149
    monkey9
    Registered Users Posts: 20,337 ✭✭✭✭monkey9


    Spiritoftheseventies wrote: »
    I would have picked someone far cooler than that to be fair :)

    Yeah, he's actually wrecking my head big time!! Where did you retrieve that from??


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    #150
    Spiritoftheseventies
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,082 ✭✭✭✭Spiritoftheseventies


    ah the usual place. Some of the reviews I have seen have been a bit iffy to be fair. Dont get where your man is coming from re the production. Single sounds fine to me.


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    #151
    Placid_Casual
    Registered Users Posts: 530 ✭✭✭Placid_Casual


    Spiritoftheseventies wrote: »
    Yes have listened to album about five times now and am very wary of over playing it. Less is more as they say. Btw what song does "about today" come from

    Have to disagree with this. I've listened to it about 10 times now and I only feel like i'm getting to know it - and liking it more with each listen. Kind of the same as Boxer and Alligator in that regard.


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