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The National ~ High Violet


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I think solid is about right. The problem is that the hype machine has gone into overdrive, but I reckon this is really just another National album. Not to say it won't be excellent, but they aren't ones for revelatiry music, all their albums are growers so it could seem a bit of a letdown to some on early listens. That said 2 and half streams for me and it's already growing on me immensely. Especially 'Afraid of Everyone'.

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Kewl cool. Don't have time to listen now but I really love this band right now. Particularly "Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers."

Speaking of bands I like right now, I heard the new Band of Horses album the other day (don't think its out for a couple of weeks) and thought it was a maze ing. I was inclined to think anything was amazing at the time though so we'll see.

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On first listen I think it is fantastic and would give it 5/5 if I were a music journalist.

I enjoyed the article too, a good insight. Bit of a bummer they are not playing any Scottish dates. The gig at ABC a few years ago was electric.

The National :cheers:

Did you not tell Matt Berninger that The National were your 3rd favourite band in the world after The Boss and Bad Religion?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just got back from going to see them in Berlin at the weekend - absolutely outstanding live.

Although im a fan of the band my girlfriend is a MASSIVE fan so I got tickets for her birthday as it was cheaper to go there than the Albert Hall (22 euros as opposed to 45 + bfee and also smaller venue 1000 cap instead of 5000 + 58 quid flight to berlin / 180 to london!!!). The new songs stand up really well and the set-list was 98% perfect (2% off for no start a war) but pretty amazing stuff.

I bought the album on vinyl, the artwork and packaging is sooo nice.

Initial impression is Afraid of Everyone is a personal favourite and i like Conversation 16.

Glasgow tickets will have to be bought also.

Wee (probably uninteresting story to anyone but me) worth telling from the weekend which is fairly relevant - im sure ill be accused of being a stalker (im not)......

When we arrived at our hotel it turned out the band were staying in the same hotel as us (checked in behind us almost giving my uber fan girlfriend a heart attack) as they had a show somewhere in Berlin that night (we were going the next night).

Late that night we came back from a night out at around 3am, we were in the hotel bar and I met the bass player at the bar (through unavoidable small talk stemming from complete disappointment at hanging around for the slow bar service despite the two of us being the only people waiting for ten minutes for A beer each!). Chatted for a bit - said i was looking forward to the show etc, hope tonight went well etc - and then went back to my table.

A short time later the guy came across and bought us a drink each and joined us. Which turned into then sitting up till well after 7am/8am. The hotel had a set of 2 guitars in the bar and a grand piano which upon learning i play (not at my insistence id add/ girlfriend informed him while i was getting a round in), he insistently asked I play for a bit and then we jam a few songs he liked out together (Smiths, Richard Hawley etc). Which I did sheepishly but despite my absolute pissed state seemed to somehow do surprisingly successfully as he then wanted to know all about/ get a copy of my music etc and said his wife was due to arrive the next night so we should all go out the next night for a few after the gig - which we thought was probably just a polite gesture to be honest and forgot all about it and went to sleep off an expected brutal hangover.

The next night after the show, we went out for a fair while and came back, this time the place was pretty rammed with a few people from the show and the guys from the band (some of the national/the support) having a late night jam in the bar. The bass player invited us to join them/ asked me to play again on piano- which i did quite happily till about 6am again. Apparently the drummer is a massive Richard Hawley fan/ Smiths fan so i was able to hammer through a fair few of their song requests - an LCD cover, one of my own at their request and The Beatles.

This kinda carried on until it was generally decided it was time to end the night (6am) (they had a 7am bus call to head to London for Jools Holland) and I didn't want to waste another holiday day after the previous days write off - so said a cheery bye and said we hoped to see them in Scotland this year.

I thought id share the tale when i read this thread with any National devotees.

It also turned out their horn player (who was also jamming with us) plays in Beirut as well as The National so that was cool too. Girlfriend is still buzzing about it, and i guess it capped an amazing weekend to a pretty amazing city.

I always think if you meet a band and theyre nice guys itll affect your view of the music but in this case I did already think the album was an absolute winner, despite the weekends events.

I can see them getting even bigger now though and a lot of upsetness from early fans but its inevitable i guess.

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Had my first listen today, I think it's as strong an album as any of the others which are consistently good. I do think personally that their big chance of having a major stab at wider popularity was the 'Lit Up' single from 'Alligator' which was what got me into them after hearing it on an Uncut freebie CD. I still don't think they have done anything else as immediately pleasing as that.

I may make a trip to Glasgow for this if I can get a ticket.

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