Realeased: April 11, 2005
Beggars Banquet
Mmmmmm....The National. This album is stellar. Their 2007 release, Boxer, is even better. And this one is soooo good. It's intelligent. It's melancholy. It's poetic. It resonates. It's solid. I picture these environs that I have never really lived in, but imagine to be what drunken, tired love looks and feels like. Not falling down, sloppy drunk. Smoldering, functioning drunk. Kind of like a Romantic poet drunk--tragic and beautiful. You don't want to live like them and yet part of that capital "R" is wrapped up in the ugliness that contributed to the work.
"Daughters of the Soho Riots" incorporates the piano like a thought floating in the air. A chord lingering here. A note hanging there. Never overwhelming. Like the lyrics, it just leaves you contemplative and thoughtful. Berninger's voice is a mellow instrument, in itself. Smooth (with a hint of a rasp) and tuned like a cello. It's as if he's talking to you, really confiding these thoughts--so personal and not always flattering--and I feel a little sorry for the "guy". Whether Berninger is really such a sad boozer, or not, I don't know. Not important. (For his sake, I hope not.) But wherever these words come from, the connection to the material, it works. The band plays beautifully. Driving some songs, lifting up others. Though I can't tell you why, I know that they're not your every day rock band. They are very, very talented. Every time I listen to this album, I hear something new that adds to the layers of great that are there. The way the drums and strings come in after the first verse of "Val Jester"--the steady build from the snare to the bass drum softly taking over. These songs are orchestrated, they are composed; it's all very deliberate and evocative. The sadness (which isn't of the boo-hoo-hoo variety, but the deep, tired and sort of resigned kind) appeals to me on so many levels. And then, when they bust out with the insistent, repeated screaming of "My mind's not right, my mind's not right!", well, I'm right there with 'em. Sometimes my mind's not right, either. The thrumming bass line underlining the guitars and drums which share that desperate quality of the vocals...yeah. They rock.
Other favorite lyrics/moments from Alligator:
"I had a secret meeting in the basement of my brain"--ummm... I have those almost every day. ("Secret Meeting")
Who is Karen? I don't want to be Karen, but I want to be a Karen in some musician's lyrics. ("Karen" and "City Middle")
"We'll run like we're awesome, totally genius"--dude. ("The Geese of Beverly Road")
Total road trip music, night time driving. Summertime at night in the park on the grass star gazing music
The reference to Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, only she's the one waiting for the "click"... ("City Middle")
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