The National: More Subtle Than Ever

It's hard not to like the National. Sure, maybe their music doesn't quite suit your taste, but it would be impossible to argue that this band's repertoire is anything but thoughtful and intensely belabored over. Effort is one area where these guys never fall short. And on their new record High Violet, the songs feel more strenuously produced and fussed over than ever before. What that creative process has led to are very tight and densely packed nuggets that lack the visceral punch of Alligator and the intimacy of Boxer. The landscape of these songs is epic, and for better or worse, they are also the band's most subtle to date. On High Violet, the songs won't engage you; instead, you have to go engage them. A quick listen here will leave little bounty, but for the dedicated fan that fully engages in every aspect of the music—from the lyrics to the carefully constructed tone and tempo changes (the drumming on "Conversation 16" is sensational)—it's a rich and emotional whirlwind of modern theater that goes right for the jugular.

The only fault of the album is also the band's greatest attribute: careful construction. These songs are built to last, brick by brick with cement from the ground up, but over the course of that process the potential for mistakes and surprises is diminished and so goes with it a small spark of electricity. Will High Violet get your blood boiling and pull your heart strings? Certainly, but you have to give it time. Just do as Matt Berninger talk-sings on "Anyone's Ghost": "Go out at night with your headphones on, again."

The National - "Bloodbuzz Ohio" (from High Violet)