By: Maria Ciezak
For BiggerThanBeyonce.Com

Ready for some good music? Good. Let’s begin.

When I read the release date, the only rational response was to become ecstatic over the next album from one of the best bands of the decade, The National. The Brookyln based indie-rock outfit are back with a new smash album, High Violet. It’s a demoralized, harmonious, volatile and beautiful set of songs that find the band at the peak of their collaborative powers. The music is widespread in its moods, full of drab angles and impression.

Opening is the furry folk of Terrible Love. This song hits me, the way a good song should (”It’s a terrible love and I’m walking with spiders. I was carried to Ohio in a swarm of bees,”). Life situations become the basis of lyrics, as here, where it seems personal demons have taken on literal forms. Like most of the songs on this album, the title illustrates this idea perfectly. One of the most influential parts of the band is Matt Beringer. In my opinion, he holds one of the utmost voices on the planet; raw talent that could belt out the dictionary or the cocktail menu at a piano bar, and it would still sell. Their influences range from Bruce Springsteen to Joy Division; this sentence alone should be enough to intrigue you.

The National definitely pulls the plug on any arena rock desire, and that’s why I find them so stimulating. They have the potential to sell out arenas, yet choose pack halls, wall to wall instead. Primitive glum never sounded this good. They will take you to the dark side of the High Violet. It’s hard finding fault with this album, and I’d like to test one to do so. Like the band that created it, it’s an album that’s built to last.

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