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The National are a New York-based quintet that debuted with
The National (2001), an album recorded before playing a single live show
and highlighted by Matt Berninger's smoky vocals and allegorical tales
(Beautiful Head, Cold Girl Fever,
Theory of the Crows, American Mary).
In an apparent outrage to the alt-country tradition,
the twin guitars of twin brothers
Bryce Dressner and Aaron Dressner often take a back seat to the dark, ominous crooning (via Leonard Cohen and Nick Cave) and to the flexible but ever majestic
rhythm section.
The expressive power of band and songwriter truly blossomed on
Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers (Brassland, 2003),
a soap opera of ordinary misfits that employed a more expansive sound.
The best songs
belonged to a new genre of
chamber country-pop, tinged with
Lou Reed-ian expressionism and
Leonard Cohen-ian existentialism.
That combination packed an emotional force that, coupled with the singer's
almost gothic delivery, could also propel rocking
Warren Zevon-ian songs such as
Slipping Husband, that culminates in a visceral scream, or such as
Murder Me Rachael, a lullaby drenched in a crescendo of distorted guitar and thundering drums,
or such as Available a ringing, insistent boogie with a rousing, psychotic finale.
Furthermore, these lively elegies were often supported by a broad palette of impressionistic touches,
ranging from the electronic undercurrent and the subaquatic organ of Patterns of Fairytales to
the plaintive violin of 90-Mile Water Wall
to the jangling guitars the sinister jamming of Trophy Wife (sounding like an update of the Archies' Sugar Sugar).
The textural work was even more evident in the languid, whispered
Cardinal Song (for small country-gospel ensemble), a masterful ghost of a
song that seems to die but instead revives itself for the final lines in the
form of a solemn neoclassical coda,
and in the closing Lucky You, stately jamming of guitar and piano punctuated with mournful strings.
Perhaps a bit less cohesive and less traumatic,
third album Alligator (Beggars Banquet, 2005) repeats the same show
through Baby We'll Be Fine, Karen and Abel.
While no song stood out, the proceedings as a whole emanated a sense of
sobering and profound humanity.
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(Translation by/ Tradotto da Luca Criscuoli)
The National sono un quintetto con base a New York che ha debuttato con The National (2001), un album registrato prima di suonare anche solo un singolo concerto e evidenziato dalle vocalità fumose e le storie allegoriche di Matt Berninger (Beautiful Head, Cold Girl Fever, Theory of the Crows, American Mary).
La forza espressiva del gruppo e del compositore sboccia realmente con Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers (Brassland, 2003), una soap opera di ordinari disadattati che utilizza sonorità più ampie. Le migliori canzoni appartengono ad un nuovo genere di country-pop da camera, sfumato con Lou Reed-iano espressionismo e Leonard Cohen-iano esistenzialismo. Spesso sono supportate da un’ampia tavolozza di ordinati tocchi impressionistici, che spaziano dalla nascosta tendenza di tipo elettronico di Patterns of Fairytales al violino neoclassico di 90-Mile Water Wall. Il lavoro di tessitura è perfino più evidente in Cardinal Song (per piccolo ensemble country-gospel) e Available (per gruppo rock'n'roll).
Forse un po’ meno coesivo e meno traumatico il terzo album Alligator (Beggars Banquet, 2005) ripete lo stesso spettacolo attraverso Baby We'll Be Fine, Karen e Abel.
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Boxer (Beggars Banquet, 2007) delivered twelve immaculate productions
that summed up the band's aesthetic, in particular the way songs rapidly
assume a solemn quality while continuing to communicate at a bare everyman
level.
The layered arrangement of Fake Empire, rolling piano followed by
skipping syncopated rhythm followed by sobbing trumpets followed by marching trombones,
or the torrential drums and mournful strings that torment the dejected mantra of Squalor Victoria,
or the crescendo of drums and guitar that swallows the vocals in Guest Room
or the funereal bassoon and bucolic pace of Gospel
are more important than the story itself. While the vocals often sound
vulnerable, the music has never sounded so strong.
The band's narrative style excels at the shadowy mood of
Brainy, Green Gloves and Racing Like A Pro, but
Berninger sounds most comfortable in
the tender epic tone of Slow Show, with strings and noises competing
to break the steady beat. One of the most monotonous vocalists to ever deal with
profound themes, he truly modulates his singing only once, in
Ada, and sends shockwaves to a tapestry of horns, keyboards and guitars.
Even the more muscular moments
(Apartment Story, Mistaken For Strangers) are first and foremost
a game of balance between an almost metaphysical yearning and a very
earthly poignancy (best epitomized by the insistent drumming).
The atmosphere owes a lot to producer Padma Newsom and to the rhythm section
(notably drummer Bryan Devendorf).
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(Translation by/ Tradotto da Stefano Pertile )
Boxer (Beggars Banquet, 2007) contiene dodici produzioni immacolate che riassumono l'estetica della band, in particolare il modo in cui le canzoni assumono rapidamente una solennità e contemporaneamente continuano a comunicare in un modo spoglio proprio dell'uomo della strada. L'arrangiamento stratificato di Fake Empire, il pianoforte dondolante seguito da un ritmo saltellante e sincopato seguito ancora dalle trombe singhiozzanti seguite dalla marcia dei tromboni, o la batteria torrenziale e le corde dolenti che tormentano il mantra depresso di Squalor Victoria, o il crescendo di batteria e chitarra che ingoia le parti vocali di Guest Room o il fagotto funereo e l'andamento bucolico di Gospel sono più importanti della storia stessa. Mentre le voci suonano spesso vulnerabili, la musica non è mai stata così forte.
Lo stile narrativo del gruppo eccelle nell'umore ombroso di Brainy, Green Gloves e Racing Like A Pro, ma Berninger suona più a proprio agio nel tono teneramente epico di Slow Show, dove corde e rumori fanno a gara per spezzare il ritmo. Tra i cantanti più monotoni alle prese con temi profondi, egli modula davvero la voce solo una volta, in Ada, con l'effetto di provocare onde d'urto contro un arazzo di corni, tastiere e chitarre. Anche i momenti più muscolari (Apartment Story, Mistaken For Strangers) sono innanzitutto un gioco di equilibrio tra una brama quasi metafisica e un'intensità molto terrena (incarnata al meglio dal battito incalzante). L'atmosfera deve molto al produttore Padma Newsom e alla sezione ritmica (specialmente al batterista Bryan Devendorf).
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High Violet (4AD, 2010) is more extroverted and at times even emphatic
than its predecessors while sticking to an adult midtempo and indulging in
a spleen that recalls the gloomy post-punk melodies of the 1980s.
Terrible Love is emblematic: moderately psychedelic, moderately dark-punk and moderately post-rock.
In most cases the music is tenuous, a modest decoration for the voice.
The stately narration of songs like Sorrow wanders in a soundscape that is made almost exclusively of drumming until the very end.
Hence, the vocals are in charge of most of the movement.
In what is possibly the most subtle strategy of the album, the dejected refrain of Anyone's Ghost collides with the Doors-ian melody that created it.
The singing in Bloodbuzz Ohio is so detached to sound lugubrious despite
the strong rhythmic pulsation of drums and bass and the rich timbres of the tinkling piano.
When the arrangements weigh more, the results are mixed.
The oneiric blend of strings, accordion and backup vocals in Afraid Of Everyone does improve the effect of the brooding U2-esque elegy;
and the subdued horn fanfare does provide a welcome lift to the otherwise monotonous singsong of Runaway;
whereas the orchestral crescendo feels vain in Little Faith, and
all the bombastic commotion on Conversation 16 feels like a distraction
from the fact that the song is quite trivial.
England is all inner introspection and call and response with the
instruments; again, with mixed results.
The biggest problem of the album is obviously not technical (the musicians'
proficiency is spectacular) but tactical: they make too much of the lyrics,
which, as customary with rock bands, are not exactly Nobel Prize-grade.
When the music is so subservient to the text, one has to make sure to have
something important to say, and to word it in a memorable manner.
Not many rock musicians rise to the occasion.
The melodies and the arrangements are average at best, no matter how skilled
the performers.
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(Translation by/ Tradotto da xxx)
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