ΔΙΣΚΟΚΡΙΤΙΚΗ

THE NATIONAL - "HIGH VIOLET"
by George Georgiou (song292@yahoo.gr)



Five grey Brooklyn suits keep moving to wider audiences through songs that praise the naked reality of a sad person. The National have built their serious fame with the traditional climbing up the hill through great albums and numerous performances. "High Violet", number five album in line, somehow sounds like a dirty bag with wounded diamonds. The soul of barytone leader Matt Berninger stands somewhere between Stuart Staples and Paul Banks, breaths in joydivisionish anthems or bunnymen cakes to translate hopeless meanings of daily acts. The smell of ugly rain in the city could be the carpet for Matt's storytelling as a sufficient selfsarcasm parades in sketches of New York. Urban scenes of inner acceptance of failure, the poverty of reasons to be and feel a meaning for this, a false importance in acts of despair, the fear of being a parent, the stream of nothing... Five grey Brooklyn suits with the smell of smoke and alcohol have found numerous reasons to attract the restless souls of winter and help them share their emptiness. They always keep sounding indispensable to people who can't fall asleep without a little help...