Seven Red

Dang. Missed a whole month. What will the archive think?

Looked at the page a few times over the last month or so. No energy for it. So I’m forcing myself to rev up the engine again with something easy here, as I’ll do from time to time. As is well known in Seven Red Land, I’m a complete fanboy of The National, so I just wanted to post a little about High Violet. Needless to say, I’ve given it more than a few listens since its release a couple of weeks ago, and of course I love it. I also loved the review on Pitchfork that says it’s a good album, even if you’re not an “upwardly mobile stiff with minor social anxiety,” a pretty hilarious description of what might be presumed to be The National’s fanbase. The Pitchfork review also notes that Matt Berninger sometimes seems to be auditioning to replace the current Dos Equis “Most Interesting Man in the World,” which made me laugh. Yeah, dude.

Yeah, but even so. I remember having Alligator on a loop when I was first working up the diss – and Boxer on a loop as I was finishing, so there’s just a history there for me. I can’t hear “Daughters of the Soho Riots” without that sinking feeling I had when I basically trashed most of the first version – haven’t told many people about that yet, either. Now, High Violet, and I think most of the reviews bear this out, is a very different record than Boxer, even if it plays out a consistent trajectory. I guess it’s a cliche to say it’s darker, but it is – slower, driven by repetition in a way even Boxer wasn’t, where the delayed adolescence that really drives Boxer thematically hits the wall, maybe. But maybe that’s it. If I was right there with Boxer, I’m probably right there with High Violet, too, as much as I hate the identification model. I wouldn’t, like the Pitchfork snark (hey, it’s good snark) call Berninger’s lyrics cryptic so much as aphoristic. You have to follow them out: “I defend my family, with my orange umbrella.” What a comedy of contemporary middle class fatherhood! And I think there’s refreshing honesty in even saying “I’m Afraid of Everyone” in a culture that promotes fearlessness as if it is some kind of trump virtue.

Part of the hype around High Violet has gone something like this: here’s a band that still makes albums in the age of the download, and by albums, they mean a kind of coherent aesthetic product at the larger unit level, supposedly a by-gone product tied to vinyl and then CD distribution models. I’m so-so on this claim, mainly because a lot bands still make “albums,” just like a lot of people still write novels, despite the various kvetching, celebration, and other New Media fetishism that sees them as a “print-age form,” or some other such gun-jumping declarations. So, I don’t think it’s anything remarkable as a formal matter to have crafted a well-ordered and arranged album – but High Violet certainly is one. Anyway, here are two off High Violet, both of which I’d rank pretty high, though I can pretty much listen to the whole record without interruption. Enjoy your upwardly mobile stiffdom. And your minor social anxiety.

This live version of Sorrow from Berlin is great.

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