Welcome to my first blog post ever! I've never posted one word on a blog before the one you're looking at right this very moment- and I won't lie, I'm a little excited. So let's all just take a deep breath and jump right in, shall we?
Lately I've been enamored with Boxer, last summer's offering from Ohio-based The National. Their fourth full-length, and follow-up to 2005's indie-popular Alligator, Boxer is a record that not only made me stop and listen the first time I heard it, but has succeeded in staying with me- it's songs are beautiful and haunting and altogether not easily forgotten. Sparse at times, rolling and orchestrated at others (they sneak in a rather impressive array of instruments- from strings to horns to accordians, even a showing by Sufjan Stevens on Racing Like a Pro, and Ada), it is Matt Berninger's baritone vocals that help tie all of the songs together with thoughtful and often unnerving lyrics.
oh we're so disarming darling, everything we did believe/is diving off the balcony/tired and wired we ruin too easy/sleep in our clothes and wait for winter to leave.
Highlights include the haunting ballad Green Gloves, the pounding Apartment Story, and the beautiful and poignant Slow Show (my particular favorite- it follows the ruminations of a poor chap who feels out of place at a party and just wants to get back home to his sweetheart). Fake Empire, the album opener, is also a favorite; listen as it ascends from somewhat mismatched piano chords to a sprawling horn-kissed crescendo. Enjoy.
3 comments:
Gorgeous song, Cubicle Whale. Hooray for your first ever blog post! No grammar mistakes or nothin!
Proceeding to bookmark.
This is momentous.
(Question: Is it in bad taste to comment on your own blog?)
P.S. Green Gloves is favorite for sure.
Mmm...good stuff.
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