Since I tend to have clearer (and louder) thoughts about the National while intoxicated, let me hold onto the two (and only two, Pam!) gin and seltzers coursing through my system right now to talk about I Am Easy to Find. Know first, dear reader, that the National are tied for my favorite band of all time (and on some days, like today, probably my favorite band outright), so this review may not be as even-keeled as a PoYB reader deserves to read. I would listen to an electro-rap fusion album by the National at least 37 times if they chose to go in that direction. I guess take it all with a grain of salt, is my point.
And don't read my Twitter, if you are one of the zero people who follow me on Twitter and ALSO are reading this review currently. The first time I listened to I Am Easy to Find, I hated it (and thus tweeted about my casual dislike). I didn't hear any excitement in this album at all. Which, c'mon, is a DUMB FUCKING OPINION, for the National especially. Because I know full well that the National perennially create albums that are the quintessential definition of a "grower." I've never loved a National album the first go-around. It takes ten full and careful listens for me to even understand what the fuck is going on. The albums are, typically, as dense as lead singer's Matt Berninger's vocals are deep.
Which means that you might be reading a lot of reviews today that are wishy-washy—and that makes sense! I don't expect anyone to fall in love with a National album with only less than seven days time to digest. This particular review you are currently reading is a fucking cheat because I woke up early on the day that the album was released and started listening to it, and have been listening to it since. I've had sufficient time. I know how I feel about it now.
And now—after burying the lede so badly that I'll be surprised if the gin hasn't worn off completely by the time I reach the end of this review—I will tell you how I feel about it. Here is my opinion: this album is really fucking good!
What's crazy about the National is that there are songs that, on any other album by any other band, would be boring or trite, but the National are somehow able to twist them and add enough poignancy that they become great fucking songs. I don't know how they do it, but at least ten of the songs on I Am Easy to Find I blew off as slow and formless on my first listen, and now are some of my favorite National songs EVER. I can't tell you how many times the chorus to "Hairpin Turns" has bubbled up in my brain over the past few weeks, for example.
Strange enough that a slow boiler like "Hairpin Turns" was the first song to click with me. But sure enough, listen after listen, more songs began to pop. Next were the obvious ones, the "rockers," if you will. "Rylan" fucking slays, but that's possibly because it was written in like 2011 and so my ears were easily accustomed to the "classic" National sound. "You Had Your Soul with You" borrows those computer-y digital bloops and bleeps that Sleep Well Beast used so well, and builds yet another blast of energy.
Then came the slower songs, in time. Songs like "Roman Holiday" and the title track are slow to approach and then hit you all at once. The lyrics (as always, hitting me right in the chest at exactly the right time in my life) and the steady heartbeat of the rhythms add up to songs that I get now, but it takes some work.
A lot of the criticism I've read over the past few weeks is against the fact that Berninger, possibly the greatest indie rock vocalist of our time, shares the spotlight quite often with a host of female artists. Fuck the haters, because I think it adds yet another layer of nuance to the National's signature moribund sound.
Wait—let's stop this review real quick. I don't think "moribund" is the correct word there. It popped into my head and I wrote it down without even thinking (blame my parents for signing me up for goddamn SAT classes IN THIRD GRADE!!!), but now I'm looking at Merriam-Webster, and it says that the definition is "lacking vitality or vigor; at the point of death." That's all wrong, you guys. The National, even at their slowest and most measured (I Am Easy to Find being possibly their slowest and very most measured), are never lacking in vitality or vigor.
Especially not during any song that actually features the drums—I don't think I've ever loved or appreciated a drummer in my lifetime more than Bryan Devendorf—but even on an album that features a precarious deficiency of percussion, the National is able to plum the hidden depths of human emotion more masterfully than any band in existence. I feel alive when I listen to the National. I feel humor. I feel pain. I feel a connection that I don't always feel when I'm listening to good music—like the band gets me, and I get it.
This has thus far sounded like a five-puke review, so let's now talk about the (very few) things that bothered me. I mean, honestly, the biggest and maybe only important thing is that there are two completely unnecessary throwaway tracks that ruin the flow of the album, sub-1:00 instrumental bullshit nothings. To bands that include this trash, even bands I adore above all others, I say, fuck you. There are some long extended moments in other songs that might've made me say fuck you as well, had they been their own tracks, like e.g. the beginning of "Dust Swirls in Strange Light." This is the sound of the National straining my tolerance. I also can't really get behind the mumbly sing-talking in "The Pull of You," nor am I as enamored with the "clever" references to other bands in "Not in Kansas" as other critics seem to be. But this is just picking nits, obviously. The album is an achievement, missteps included.
So let's take half a point off for these minor inconveniences, and let's take another half point off because of the reason I discussed at the beginning—this is a National album, and it's been less than a month. I've had more time than most of the Record Club members, true, but it's only been three weeks, tops. Who knows what could happen in the next year or two? When I play this album 107 more times, who know where it'll end up? It might be my favorite album of all time. The National's albums are growers. In the past three weeks, it's gone from disappointment to really, really fucking good, so maybe it'll grow some more.
All I know is I'm glad I Am Easy to Find exists, because now I get to be right there with it and find out how much it'll grow. I'm excited.
GRADE: 4 pukes out of 5
No comments:
Post a Comment