Record We Love Right Now: The National's High Violet
We'll cop to not being familiar with Brooklyn's (by way of Cincinnati, OH) The National when their breakthrough record, Boxer, was released in 2007. We quickly righted that wrong as it garnered some of that year's best reviews and, in the three years since, has rapidly leaped up The Dirtywhirl's Greatest Records Of All-Time list. Thus, the release of their follow up, High Violet, was met with much anticipation by many (including us). Glad to say that it lives up to the hype. It's tricky following a classic like Boxer but The National have managed to pull it off without encountering much trouble. "Bloodbuzz Ohio" was a strong initial statement and hitting Late Night With Jimmy Fallon to perform High Violet's opening "Terrible Love" showed that these guys have lost exactly none of their live energy. The record finds the combination of Matt Berninger's ragged baritone backed by the Dessner and Devendorf brothers' instrumentation still intact, and along with attracting the requisite critical praise, High Violet managed to debut at #3 on last week's Billboard 200. We love it when deserving bands taste success and believe us, The National effing deserves it.
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