The National

Been travelling for work so only listened on Spotify so far - my copy arrived at work today while I was in Sydney for the day.

Listened to it through 2-3 times on Friday then not again until today and was struck how it's now embedded in my brain and already familiar, luscious and just really fucking good.

Cannot wait to spin the vinyl version, then I will watch the film (again), wonder why I'm crying (again), and listen to the soundtrack...
 
roger said:
Huge National fan and on first listen I gotta say I'm not enamored with this album. I feel like its a little unfocused/overlong and has too many vocal guest features for my tastes, feels less like a National album and more like a side project. I found it jarring to not hear berninger's voice for huge stretches of the album.

Now that I've got one listen of it in the books I'm gonna go back with reset expectations and give it another go.
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I've seen a couple people posting something similar to this idea that this feels like a side project or doesn't really feel like a The National album because of all the female vocal features. I was wondering what everyone thought made a song a The National song or an album a The National album.
Personally, I would consider the interludes and instrumentals to be The National songs in name only and to be more of a different entity.
 
Oblivions said:
I've seen a couple people posting something similar to this idea that this feels like a side project or doesn't really feel like a The National album because of all the female vocal features. I was wondering what everyone thought made a song a The National song or an album a The National album.
Personally, I would consider the interludes and instrumentals to be The National songs in name only and to be more of a different entity.
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This is very much a 'The National' album at heart. The only difference is they brought in an army of collaborators this time around. This is band who after 20 years of making music, have decided to reinvigorate their sound in order to stave off stagnation, and I commend them for it. The only project I see here is a multimedia one.
 
Similar side conversation/prompt that I've been thinking about...

Do people think Matt's narrators in their lyrics on their earlier albums are cool? I've always thought they were a bit pathetic and that Matt was offering them as a half-joking self-deprecating satire of privileged sad dudes wallowing in their clever self pity and delusions of granduer.

It wasn't until I started reading social media/Reddit criticisms of the new vocalists and Carin's effect on Matt's lyrics the last few albums that I started to realize some people looked to Matt's narrators, both in his vocal presence and lyrics, as sort of personal heroes without the sense of irony or satire that I always viewed as being inherent.

Alongside that question/thought is the realization that I like Matt's voice and his clever/funny word play but I must not love them enough to really mind those elements taking a slight back seat. The additional vocalists, pretty immediately, felt like expansions to the National's palette and like new super powers rather than detrimental attention stealers from what the band is supposed to be. This feels like the National evolving into a bigger, better beast than a side project, IMO.
 
swamp jazz box set said:
Similar side conversation/prompt that I've been thinking about...

Do people think Matt's narrators in their lyrics on their earlier albums are cool? I've always thought they were a bit pathetic and that Matt was offering them as a half-joking self-deprecating satire of privileged sad dudes wallowing in their clever self pity and delusions of granduer.

It wasn't until I started reading social media/Reddit criticisms of the new vocalists and Carin's effect on Matt's lyrics the last few albums that I started to realize some people looked to Matt's narrators, both in his vocal presence and lyrics, as sort of personal heroes without the sense of irony or satire that I always viewed as being inherent.
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I definitely agree with that, though I'm not sure they're just Matt's "narrators" all the time. He does give off a certain personae that a lot of fans seem to idolize but I find pretty tiresome. "He wears a suit and gets drunk on stage!" Cool, who gives a shit.
 
BjorgenFjorgen said:
I definitely agree with that, though I'm not sure they're just Matt's "narrators" all the time. He does give off a certain personae that a lot of fans seem to idolize but I find pretty tiresome. "He wears a suit and gets drunk on stage!" Cool, who gives a shit.
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Last time I saw them he gave out two bottles of wine to the crowd and then realized those were the only two bottles he had but it was too late so he remained sober. Haha.
 
I just cannot unhear the sibilance in some of the songs and I take back what I said before about it maybe being the vinyl pressing causing the distortion. The digital sounds has the distortion as well.

But yeah this album is really growing on me. I can see it creeping into my top 3 from time to time.
 
is there a better place to order the deluxe? 4ad vs band site? Think band site may be cheapest but they had a damaged disclaimer and how they aren't responsible if using media mail.

I just got a payout from gazelle for sending in an old iMac so its burning a hole in my pay pal pocket , as it were
 
Delta Don said:
is there a better place to order the deluxe? 4ad vs band site? Think band site may be cheapest but they had a damaged disclaimer and how they aren't responsible if using media mail.

I just got a payout from gazelle for sending in an old iMac so its burning a hole in my pay pal pocket , as it were
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Probably Amoeba Records if you can apply a coupon code. Not sure if there are any out right now though. It’s listed for $55 but they usually have 10-15% off codes each month.
 
Delta Don said:
is there a better place to order the deluxe? 4ad vs band site? Think band site may be cheapest but they had a damaged disclaimer and how they aren't responsible if using media mail.

I just got a payout from gazelle for sending in an old iMac so its burning a hole in my pay pal pocket , as it were
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Their store will replace records that skip. They won't offer the VMP Gaurantee™ of zero blemishes to the jacket or inner sleeves or zero warpage but I'm not sure many other online outlets offer that level of perfection guarantee either. Amazon does no questions asked returns but I read somewhere (here or on VC) that someone kept getting regular black copies instead of the 3xLP from Amazon.
 
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