If “adult contemporary” didn’t already denote a genre of music that employed white people got drunk to, it would have been coined to describe The National, and it would have denoted a genre of music that employed white people got drunk to, and it would have been a hell of a lot more accurate. Intelligent but grounded, political but emotional, brooding but hopeful. One of the best records of the summer, and destined to be one of the best records of 2010, or at least the night half of 2010.
9/10
Released May 10, 2010 on 4AD
Everyone else...pretty much loves it.
Independent...in the Billboard Top 10 Alternative Music Charts way.
Follows...2007's "Boxer" pretty naturally, except a bit more grand.
Highlights:
Afraid of Everyone: Paranoid, groovy, and begging for a remix.
Runaway: "We don't bleed when we don't fight" is either the best anthem of this past decade, or else the best anthem of the next.
England: Berninger's lyrics at their furthest from their NYC haunt, but nevertheless as Gatsby as ever, and as good as ever. Wow.
No comments:
Post a Comment