Song of The Day #10 - The National - 'Think You Can Wait'

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Not on at any cinemas near me, in case you were wondering. They're still showing 'The King's Speech'.

FINALLY he posts a new song! I thought it was the best idea. Y'know. Try and keep my little corner of the internet current and relevant instead of just going on and on and on about songs that have been out for decades every day. So, this song from The National is featured on the soundtrack of the above film and it's really great too. As is the way of this band, it's a real sad slow burner that probably doesn't sound too hot on a sunny day in the park but when things are generally a bit grey, inside and out, there's no one who does music like this better.

TOP TIP: Best enjoyed when you're walking home pissed looking at streetlights and trying to attribute some sort of misguided poetic meaning to them.

The National - 'Think You Can Wait'

I'll pull the devil down with me one way or another.

Sharon Von Etten adds guest vocals to the track and they really blend beautifully with Berninger's down at heel and matter of vocal rumble. I'll be damned if she doesn't sound exactly like Lisa Hannigan who use to sing with Damien Rice a few years back. Anyone remember her? No? Thought not, still they sound identical is what I'm saying. Video above is taken from YouTube and is spliced with scenes from 'Win Win' which is out now. Naturally the YouTube comments listed for this video are interesting. There's about a hundred people moaning about how audio from the film is dubbed over the band in this clip. I guess they've got a point but as we all know people on YouTube comments lists are usually one or more of about seven things: moaning bitches who'll whinge about anything, thick as shit, racist, 12 years old, thick as shit, something about Bieber or thick as shit.

The main reason I've included this song today is the same as it is every day with these posts - 'Think You Can Wait' (like the past nine entries) is a special special song I cannot listen to once. It starts, I get lost, I press repeat. That's a magical thing.

We've been running a sleepless run
Been away from the baby way too long
We've been holding a good night gone
We've been losing our exits one by one

Listasaurus: The Top 20 Songs of 2010: 14 - 12

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The list continues apace. Three more pieces of solid gold.

14. Josh Ritter - 'The Curse'

She asks "Are you cursed?" He says "I think that I'm cured."

I still have a lot of time for good old fashioned songs and that's exactly what 'The Curse' is. It's nothing much really. There's little more than a repetitive piano piece, a lone trumpet and Ritter's well pronounced crystal clear vocal but it's truly a beautiful listen.

I'm not really sure what this song is about. Love, fame and ego perhaps. No one other than Josh Ritter can tell you that but since the release of 'So Runs The World Away' I've been really enjoying trying to decipher this one over and over again. Fantastic video too. The sort of video that you watch once and know that you will forever think about it when listening to the accompanying song in the future.

13. Drake - 'The Resistance'

"I'm living inside the moment, not taking pictures to save it."

I can really see why people dislike Drake. He's an actor, he's riding on Lil Wayne's coattails, he ain't 'real', some of his lines are just so goofy/hammy. Truly, I understand all that. 'Thank Me Later' though, is a record that I've returned to time and time again this year. I've come to the conclusion that (for a change) it's all down to those beats. Drake's long term bro 40 produced a fair chunk of 'Thank Me Later', including 'The Resistance', and it really is wonderfully done. That withdrawn almost isolated beat backs up Drake, who sounds as conversational as ever, fantastically well. It's barely there, I mean, you've really gotta listen out for it but what it does is just so vital.

Lyrically, Drake's got issues man, he doesn't know whether he's coming or going actually. He's carrying his city's weight like a cargo ship but he can't find the time to call his Gran who's just gone in the nursing home. That sort of thing. If you listen to the record you'll discover that finding this balance between blowing up yet staying 'normal' and a relatively decent man is a recurring theme and I dig that a lot actually.

2010 has been an enormous year for Drake with his debut album selling 447,000 copies in its first week and his profile going stratospheric but when success sounds like this, it's hard to begrudge.

12. The National - 'Afraid of Everyone'

"Your voice is swallowing my soul, soul, soul, soul."

The National stick to the 'write about what you know' maxim better than anyone else I can think of. Fears, worries, anxieties, doubts. The murky sides of the human condition, the things we'd all probably eradicate if we could, that's the bands bread and butter.

Since its release, I've gradually come round to the thinking that 'High Violet' is a record of two halves. The second of which ('Afraid of Everyone' onwards) is of such a high quality it's almost scary. In fact, if the first half was as good as the second, album of the year questions would be little more than foregone conclusions. Perhaps it's this consideration - that this song is the start of something amazing - that has assisted me in growing so fond of it. Either that or I've simply fallen in love with a very good song that reassures me that it's alright not to be so sure of everything all the time.

After listening to the song again a minute ago, I think its those ghostly backing melodies that do it for me. Strip them away and this'd probably sound a bit like a demo of a really great song. Leave them in and you have one of the best songs of the year.

Oh, you also definitely have the best outro of the year

All together now, Your voice is swallowing....

Walk Away Now and You're Gonna Start a War.

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The National starting a war by just sittin' on steps. Jus' chillin', yesterday.

Yo I just stumbled across a video that I'd completely forgotten about. It's The National performing 'Start a War' around some banquetesque dinner table in someone's dark basement and it's just brilliant. 'Banquetesque dinner table' and 'dark basement' shouldn't really be used in the same sentence, I know. It doesn't even make damn sense. Yes, I'm aware of the term oxymoron smartass.

I really hate to do another National post, I really do. You gotta keep these blog things mixed up ya see - Keep 'em fresh. You can't go posting the same old bilge every week about the same stuff and not expect people to start sleepin' on ya. With all that said, this video really is great so I'm disregarding the whole start of this second paragraph and posting something about The National despite only reviewing 'High Violet' recently. Sleep all ya want suckers.



Also whilst I'm here, Ryan Adams. I use to dig him BIG style when he was all about writing a million songs a day that were actually good and being a bit unpredictable and drunk and roundly hated by anyone who wasn't one of his fan boy/girls but since then he's really fallen off. I'm talking since 'Cold Roses' here by the way (although I see the merit in saying 'since Heartbreaker'). Yesterday I was reading about (and heard, regrettably) some of his most recent release, 'Orion', and yes, it's space metal or whatever and yes, it's shit. I thought it was only fair to somehow inform his wife in a polite manner on twitter about this. See she was moaning about dropping a table on her big toe (fascinating tweet Mandy! 2m followers too. God.) so I replied:

Neither Mr or Mrs Adams has replied as of yet.

The National - High Violet (4AD)

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A Summer Lovin' Torture Party.

I've been holding out on writing this review for a week or so because this band are a prettay big deal in these indie circles where "earlier material" is king and a "pitchfork" is less a tool to toil the earth with and more a bible but I've listened to this album a lot over the past eight days and I feel pretty qualified to write so here goes.

Firstly, 'High Violet' is no departure in sound or even content from past National albums and more specifically the past two 'breakthrough' records 'Boxer' and 'Alligator'. Secondly, if you've heard one or both of those records you'll already know you're in for some next level shit. It's safe to say that both of those albums have a strong shout at being 'albums of the year' in the years they were released - 2007 and 2005 respectively. However, a more pressing matter is whether 'High Violet', come end of year time, will feature equally as highly on polls you'll no doubt read on blogs just like this one right hurr.

In short, it will. 'High Violet' is an immaculately crafted record that captures a special band on a run of stellar releases that I cannot recall being bettered by anyone else in a long time. The orchestration is beautifully measured, Matt Berninger's vocals are as monotone yet as emotional as ever and as always noted with albums from this band, the drumming is exceptional. Listen to the ghostly gospel backing of 'Afraid of Everyone', that two steps up and two steps down piano of 'England', the fact that Berninger seems to come in a little early on 'Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks' yet the song sounds heartbreakingly perfect. Everything is in its right place. Again, The National amaze me in the way they can create music that is both instantaneous yet has incredible longevity. In an instant and transient world of music, it's so refreshing to hear that someone is making music that is accessible on a commercial level whilst not sacrificing anything in quality or depth. You get the feeling that if this one doesn't shoot these guys to the big time then they might just be forever stuck in the barrel. They really couldn't do much more.

'High Violet' is eleven tracks long which some could say is a little short. However, such is the emotional investment required in listening to these songs as a complete set, I think that is just about right. Highlights can be found at pretty much every corner. I don't seem to adore 'Terrible Love' as much as many others which had me a little worried considering its the opening track but after that you're truly plain sailing. The second half of the record is arguably a little stronger than the first half but really, I'm already nit picking. If I had to pick, I have to say that 'Runaway' has become a go-to track for me. It's wonderfully paced and reminds me a little of 'Start a War' which I played (and still do) to death. Berninger switches between sounding defiant and desperate with equal measure as verse segues to chorus and back again and the effect is just stunning. "We gotta 'nother thing comin' undone and it's taking us over.," Ouch. 'Lemonworld' is another favourite that you could file under 'definitive National'. Again, perfectly paced with a wonderful set of verses delivered with that trademark detached passion that only Berninger can afford. As a songwriter, Berninger has grown and grown with each release and here his pen is more honed than ever. A master at employing simple sentences to devastating use, 'High Violet' is an album full of songs that'll have you visiting one of those virus and pop-up infested lyric sites in no time.

To pinpoint why this band are so good is, however, difficult. Sure they make great songs, nay, albums of great songs but there's more to it than that. I think the lack of pretense in which they go about this crazy business helps. Much is made of The National being "normal blokes" that (up until relatively recently I assume) had jobs in IT and stuff. Thing is, I don't find that fact amazing in any way. These songs are made for the everyday, they are made for the uncertainty of growing up in a time and body that you're not really sure how you inherited. It's about only being certain that you're uncertain, only knowing that you don't know. They aren't a band that sneer or posture, they are a extremely talented band that work hard and honestly at their art and because of this, they get exceptional results. For me, the thing that separates them from every other band working today is the way they can drape their songs with heavy amounts of melancholy, beauty and humour, yet never ever suffocate them. They simply never sound like they are trying too hard or like they are forcing anything and they always sound right.

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I've been so lazy on the blogging front, I am sorry. Note I haven't been lazy on the Call of Duty, sleeping or looking at people from school on Facebook to see whether they're doing better than me or not fronts. This may or may not be linked to the lack of blog activity. Pitchfork today released more details of new Hold Steady and National albums. Both of these bands prettay big deals on the slightly tired indie rock scene. The Hold Steady one, 'Heaven is Whenever', looks like a more positive (scuse the pun) 'Things We Lost In The Fire' or that Spiritualized one from a few years back. The National one, 'High Violet', is just cool. Cool like Muhammad Ali and Andre 3000 on a Concorde jet.

This will be joyous. Out May 3rd dogs.

You'll listen to this to death. Out May 10 kittens

I make that two big albums of the year out...*pulls up windows calendar....counts days*..a week apart! That's really something. It feels like we've been feeding on scraps a bit this year release wise so I say bring it on. That said, that 'new' Cash album 'Ain't No Grave' is really something. I know there's a lot of mythology around those American Recordings and it can get a little distracting but as I always say, the proof's in the listening. I don't actually ever say that. It barely makes sense but give the album a spin, you'll know what I mean. Dude sounds like the grand canyon. All epic and knowing. Understanding and tired. Big and defiant. Empty and hard. We miss ya John.

Stop jerking my tears man!

What else is new? I sort of liked that 'alternative' Haiti song (a collaborative stab at Screamin' Jay Hawkins' 'I Put a Spell on You') that came out last week. I still demand to know why Nick Cave isn't some sort of relation to me so I can just chat to him and be pals at family functions and the like. Man's the best. Look at him in this video and tell me otherwise. Other observations include Bobby Gillespie just looking so old and ill. I've never seen anyone that needs some vegetables and a bath so much. Johnny Depp being sort of annoying. We get it Johnny! You're kinda edgy and an actor and you know Tim Burton and shit. Shane McGowan, for someone who lives like he does, doesn't actually look that bad.


That thing I just said about Bobby needing the bath and vegetables more than anyone ever has. I'll concede here, Macgowan probably needs them more.

Talking of Nick Cave (oh great MMD that makes a change you never talk about him you tiresome idiot), I just finished his latest hardback 'The Death of Bunny Munro' which is, don't worry, not like Donnie Darko at all. It is kinda weird though, lots of references to Avril Lavigne's genitals. Feel free to read that sentence again if you must, I did just really say that and it is actually true.

Why are you wearing that stupid man suit?"

I just looked up the lyrics to 'Sk8er Boi' so I could make some witty comment or another and found that the song actually seriously opens with the couplet "He was a boy/she was a girl/Can I make it anymore obvious?" Well you could actually Avril, yeah. I'm a boy, Queen Elizabeth II is a girl. So what? We gonna be makin' out and all that now? Huh?!

Avril, making things so complicated, yesterday.