The National – High Violet
Release Date – May 10, 2010
My Rating: 9.7/10
Pitchfork: 8.7/10
My top albums seem to follow a similar theme: the difficulties of adulthood. While Win Butler sings as a man who is new to the life as an adult, Matt Berringer of The National sings as a man who has had his years living as an adult. Bloodbuzz Ohio's line “I still owe money / to the money / to the money I owe” is one fantastic chorus, and it is a line that Americans (especially us college students) have been singing for a long time. Berringer laments in this album over relationships gone bad (Terrible Love), fear of going out with others (Afraid of Everyone), and the lies and other sins that he has committed in his life (Conversation 16) with such raw honesty that you start to feel for the man. This album is a fantastic listen; it is an album that feels like it was created by a working man sitting at his corporate job on a rainy Tuesday and meditating over his life. The National will be enjoyable to any music listener who enjoys a good baritone voice like Berringer's that also includes and extensive layering of guitars, pianos, horns, bass, woodwinds, and the backup voices of Justin Vernor (Bon Iver) and Sufjan Stevens (featured in Afraid of Everyone).
Key Tracks: Bloodbuzz Ohio, Afraid of Everyone, Conversation 16, Anyone's Ghost
Bloodbuzz Ohio: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfySK7CLEEg&ob=av3el
Afraid of Everyone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5C2WVCruPM
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