For The National, High Violet should have been its most difficult record to manufacture. For any band attempting to persist after heavy recent success, this particular album in the sequence is the most challenging.
The National took its time emerging. The band spent the first half of the 2000s producing two albums that few, save for the critic pool, will remember by name. They spent the second half of the same decade producing two more albums that are already considered some of the best of the century. The difficulty now is averting a potentially disastrous plunge.
Alligator and Boxer saw the Cincinnati-bred composers speaking on quite the range of topics. New political order, unbalanced intimacy, loss of innocence and obsession all were topics. High Violet seems to have much more of a singular theme - that of heartbreak. This was probably not a bad idea considering the importance of the album. After all, everyone is more sensitive to those in mourning. But the band makes sure that this commonly dissected theme is anything but simple. The fear of falling apart, of never getting past this hurdle, of depression and dependence are all characteristics of this theme exhausted over 11 tracks.
Despite the layered technicality that characterizes The National's compositions, the band has never been as ambitious or experimental with its arrangements as contemporaries, such as Arcade Fire and Broken Social Scene. This results in a much more focused, orchestral arrangement, and for an album that seems to only be addressing one thing in particular, this sort of maturity and discretion compliment it greatly.
High Violet shows despair in a raw, present form. The album is carefully paced so that listeners can immerse themselves in the subject matter completely. Those who are able to do so will achieve the feat of deriving nostalgia from a brand new record. The feat that The National has accomplished, however, is just as impressive. They've managed to pursue further greatness without drowning in the sea of their own accolades.
3 Culture
Andy Collier
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Provided
Review
High Violet
Artist: The National
Tracks: 11
Summary: Even with a lingering and emerging depression
