The National – Sleep Well Beast
 

Does anyone still like this band?

I like barns.

I like this band and this album and will see them in December

I should live in salt and mistaken for strangers are two of my all time favorite songs

what do you think of this album versus their others? I like the overall vibe a lot but the individual songs don't stick out as much to me as their past releases (I don't even consider the first two releases to be real though). They do seem to be just effortlessly good on this album. I don't know if there are any National songs with guitar solos other than System Only Dreams, but they pull it off as easily as anything else they try.

The DC show is sold out :(

This will be the first tour I miss them on since like 2010 or something

High Violet < Sleep Well Beast < Boxer < Alligator < Trouble Will Find Me

I'm seeing them tonight. 9th time since 2005!

fuck this album is good as shit. It's a slow burner, even for them, but I've listened to it going to and from work for the last 10 days or so and I love it a little more every time I hear it.

The consistency with which these guys have delivered since 2005 is kind of jaw-dropping.

High Violet at the bottom, eh? England alone means it can't be there imo. I still need to listen to sleep well beast more.

It's hard because it's essentially ranking 5 incredible albums from worst to best. I think High Violet was actually received the most warmly by critics, but overall the atmosphere left me feeling a little cold I guess. It's a bit sterile. But yeah it's great and has some great songs. Trouble still beats me over the head with how incredible it is though. Hard to believe it's over 4 years old now, I feel like it just came out.

did they nail it?

Totally

Slept like a baby

2 thumbs-up

Man, these guys suck

Soccer-mom rock

they got NOTHING on voodoo glow skulls

amazing performance here. their game seems to be on a whole other level now. they play so effortlessly it's crazy

really regretting not getting tickets to see them. the show is sold out now :(

They did! It was a great show. I can think of a couple of their shows that were particularly good (Boxer + Alligator in a tiny venue in 2007 comes to mind, with St Vincent singing Green Gloves), but they are always very consistent.

I saw them do a double show (afternoon and evening) at 9:30 in DC in 2009 I think, and that was really balls out. Matt poured wine on the crowd and IIRC he also attempted to do the worm down the barrier rail.

I've never seen what this band looks like, but I'm gonna go out on a limb and bet that they're one of those bands who dress in little vests

*does google search*

Fuck man, I never even had to look... Just intuitively knew it.

http://www.d3bris.de/wp-content/uplo...e-National.jpg

I could just look at this photo here, and intuitively know that it's an aesthetic that RBG would be mesmerized with

http://www.clashmusic.com/sites/defa...?itok=53CLj1Rc

"Oh my god! look at how sophisticated and quirky these guys are! these are the kind of artistic people that I wanna listen to"

meanwhile I'm sitting here, blasting the Ramones on my computer woofer set-up

you do Ramones no justice dumbass

I remember a thread where you tried to tell me punk started in the UK and that's why Joey used a British accent

you are so stupid it's ridiculous

and this band is more a descendant of Ramones than pretty much anything you like ironically

The National is in very basic terms Joy Division meets Springsteen

also fuzzy is retarded.

Did I say that? God, that would have been obnoxious. I don't believe it without proof.

I just finished reading Marky Ramones memoir. It's kick-ass, man. You should check it out if you haven't already.

The National are Joy Division meets Coldplay. I would never compare them to Springsteen. There is a lot of moody piano and acoustic guitar in their sound that reminds you of Coldplay songs.