Written by Nick Leitzke

Three years ago the National released an album called ‘Boxer.’ Many people hailed ‘Boxer’ as 2007’s album of the year. I was not included in this group of people. For a long time, long after 2007 ended and the shit-storm that was 2008 began for me, I straddled the fence regarding the National and ‘Boxer.’

At one moment I could see what everyone was talking about – a weighty album, a meaty album with nooks and crannies full of juices and flavors, an album anchored by the strong track “Mistaken For Strangers.” Then the next moment would come and I was on the other side, the negative side, seeing through ‘Boxer’ and agreeing that “Mistaken For Strangers” was indeed the strongest track, except that it fell in the number 2 slot and the rest of the album disintegrated afterward.

I oscillated back and forth like this for a long time, even as late as last year, and then I finally gave up. Let me defend myself for a second. I cringe to call it giving up, because I firmly hold this opinion. ‘Boxer’ may have been the single most overrated album of the Twenty-first century’s first decade, and the National may have been the single most overrated band. I gave up trying to like ‘Boxer’ because it wasn’t going to happen, and I wasn’t going to kid myself. I formed my opinion, and yes it is a negative opinion, but no one can say I didn’t give ‘Boxer’ a chance. I’m fair, but I’m also honest.

In 2010 the National are back with ‘High Violet.’ After only a few listens I am experiencing the same oscillation between love and pulling-out-my-hair that I did with ‘Boxer.’ For the most part, though, this time as I sit on the fence I have both of my legs on the positive side. The best thing I can say about ‘High Violet’ is that this one is everything I wish ‘Boxer’ had been.

The worst thing I can say about ‘High Violet’ is that it doesn’t kick in until the later tracks, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. What dragged down ‘Boxer’ for me was having such a strong track like “Mistaken For Strangers” so early in the placement. After the high I was stuck with a sustained low – an intense low, yes, but still a low. ‘Boxer’ never recovered. With ‘High Violet’ the National sustain the emotional drive they are so excellent at igniting like a slow motion Roman candle.

My first focal point isn’t until track 6, “Bloodbuzz Ohio,” when Mike Berninger sings, “I was carried to Ohio in a swarm of bees.” On my first listen of ‘High Violet’ I was rewriting a longer work, and that line alone grabbed me. I knew I had to listen to ‘High Violet’ two more times, three more times, however many times it takes not to love ‘High Violet’ but to at least understand it. “It’s taking forever,” Berninger says on “Runaway,” and I want it to. Maybe I will never understand it, but that isn’t the point. The point is to listen. The point is to try. Most of all, the point is to be lost. I want to be lost in the tangled honesty of ‘High Violet.’ Here at the end, five hundred words later, I leap from the fence to spend the rest of the year with the National.