National velveteen

About that National record....

I haven't heard any of the National's work prior to Boxer. What enticed me to buy the record was "Fake Empire", the "single" given away as a free download prior to Boxer's release. I liked the initially deceptive three-against-four piano part, the looped horns at the end, the tip-of-the-iceberg lyrics that imply more than they give away, the casual delivery that's mercifully restrained from over-emoting. That, along with reports (widespread in certain circles) that the National were a good band, sent me to the store.

"Fake Empire" is a very good song, and while it's probably the best thing on Boxer, I'm not wholly disappointed with the rest. There are loud moments, barely-there quiet interludes, sonic experiments and straightforward songs, and yet the whole thing holds together. It's one record where I prefer that the singer delivers almost every line exactly the same way, and maybe that's the consistent element that makes the whole album sound like it comes from one place. (He's probably going for a dramatic Joy Division thing, but he comes off a little like like Mark Knopfler sometimes. I'm OK with that, although as a vocalist, Knopfler was a great guitar player.)

There are some very lovely moments that are difficult to pull off; the string arrangement on "Brainy" is one*. Some of the more spartan songs may have been even harder to get right; "Start A War" vaguely reminds me of Greg Brown or one of Dave Alvin's dronier pieces. It would have been very easy for this record to come out something like an Interpol product (the bands share a producer), but where I find that band a little corny and half-baked, the National is somewhat more approachable.

I see that at least one reviewer has pegged Alligator (2005) as a "grower," with "initially off-putting and seemingly obtuse... non sequiturs and stray details [that] proved unpretentiously poetic over time." Boxer may or may not share that characteristic, but I'm not yet convinced that the writing's going to reveal itself as all that deep. Can I possibly be hearing at least three songs expressing distaste for what bankers wear when they go to work? (Hey, man, is this, you know, a concept album?) Two years, and this is what you have to say? Bitching about yuppie clothes?

Its unbroken tension is what makes Boxer work; I think several songs would play nicely on a film soundtrack -- say, in a black-and-white film with a lot of nudity. (Remember when Pete Buck called one of R.E.M.'s outtakes "a movie theme without a movie"?) It's good enough to take seriously, but I'm worried that what you see is all you're going to get, and that it's less a grower than an empty bit of atmosphere.

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*I meant "Squalor Victoria" here, but the bit at the end of "Brainy" is nicely done too.