boxer (the national)
The National does a fine job of maintaining a particular tone throughout this album, a low, measured tone. Every song feels like a reflection of a particular mood, a particular moment- and that moment is sitting in your car alone, near the end of a warm summer night, reflecting on the passage of time and the value of the night you just spent with someone. The distinct baritone, the fine instrumentation. It's dark, lovely music.
The lyrics are surprisingly sharp- there's humor in a lot of it, and also a scathing critique of a sad material culture. "Fake Empire" and "Mistaken for Strangers" are the opening tracks, and they're my favorites. Lyrically they master those elements of sadness, snark, critique, and musically they're simply fantastic. The low, beautiful piano of the former, the Interpolesque energy of the latter. "Ada," near the close of the album, is my other favorite. Sufjan Stevens contributes to that song, I'm not sure specifically where- many of the instruments sound like his work. His dreamy piano and horns merge perfectly with the mellow darkness of the National.
The rest of the songs are generally good, but none of them stand out. "Start a War" was probably my favorite of the rest of them. Each song has its own grace, its own moments of wit and musical strengths. Sometimes I'll listen to an album, and the tracks not worth mentioning are simply not that good. On this album, everything was pretty good. Fine work overall.
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