Customer Reviews

Alligator

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I gave this a try based on Spin's rave and the fact that I think a similar band, the Arcade Fire, is swell. At first listen, I thought the National was a bit repetitive, a little too emo, and kinda like a Smith's rip off band.

Boy, was I really, really wrong.

This band's ballads rock, and its rock songs possess an emotional urgency that you usually only see in ballads. I wouldn't call this emo, but maybe urgent chamber pop? Baroque rock? Whatever the National is doing, it's producing music that seems almost like fine literature....addictive, lush, loaded with smart, grown-up lyrics. It's as good as the Arcade Fire if not better.

Much has been made of lead singer Matt Berninger's baritone, comparing it to the growls of Morrissey or Nick Cave. It's an apt description, but Berninger also channels the dude from Crash Test Dummies and even early Bono (before he turned into an Ipod monster with mediocre, over-orchestrated songs). Berninger sings in an ironic tone without being morose. He's wry and heartbroken without being snarky a la the band Cake.

His band is held together by tight drumming, ever-changing guitars, spiraling violens and some very effective background chanting choruses.

There isn't a bad song on this record, but the opening track," Secret Meeting" shines by managing to sound like a cross between Roxy Music and the Clash, a kind of rich, moody rock anthem. Softer songs, including the funny "Looking for Astronauts" and the sad, elegiac "Daughters of the SoHo Riots," are be good ballads without being sappy, crappy Air Supply or Dashboard Confessional drek.

I really can't recommend this album enough. It's unusual, lovely and I can't wait to see what they come up with next.

I guess it's the nature of Americana -the most puzzling new genre label since "New Age"!- to find its worshippers in the most unlikely places, whether it's a borough of New York -having relocated from Cincinatti- or Leeds in the UK when it comes to Dakota Suite, or even somewhere Norway in the case of Midnight Choir.
Anyway the international references above are not gratutious or forced to make my point, The National ultimately belongs to the same community of voices as the above mentioned bands. Like its peers in Europe, they are keen on emotive ballads that manage to evoke and make sense of the pains of being alive.
Where The National does distinguish itself is in their ability to sound as convincing when it comes to the a louder and more epic songcraft, as they do with the intimate stuff. And, in this album, The National proves their range, whether it is the tender melody of "Daughters of the Soho Riots" or the building passion of "Looking For Astronauts."
Other reviews have already mentioned influences and similarities. Certainly the singer will remind you of Stuart Staples of the Tindersticks, although the references to Tom Waits or Leonard Cohen -both of whom I know and admire- are less obvious to me. Actually, at least when it comes to two of my favorite songs -the brooding "Val Jester" and the gorgeous "All The Wine"- Matt Berninger's voice evoked the tone and phrasing of Robert Fisher from the great Willard Grant Conspiracy.
That said, and more importantly, these guys have their own things to say musically and lyrically, and the names mentioned should only be taken to give new listeners a sense of reference, but not to imply that The National's music owes anyone a major debt. They stand on their own, and they deliver a beautiful, heartfelt album, whether they rock or they long, when they turn the volume up and when they lower the lights.
If you were impressed by last year's EP -Cherry Tree- this full-length gem will fill you with joy. The National bare themselves and will lift your spirit. In addition, to the songs mentioned already, I'd add "The Geese of Beverly Road," "Karen" and "City Middle" to make my case.
Along with "Dignity and Shame" by the Crooked Fingers -which I also reviewed- "Alligator" is the best Americana music that you will hear this year. And what it's even more exciting, it may not even be the peak of their creativity. This band's ground is worth keeping your ear to, for whatever they do in the future.

I own all of the National's albums, but so far Alligator is my favorite. Like their other albums, there is a real range of songs --- from raging Pixies-esque rock songs to slow ballads that seem to channel Nick Cave or Leonard Cohen. I also get a Cat Stevens or Nick Drake vibe at times-- especially on Daughters of the Soho Riots. The arrangements are intricate but not overdone. In general the tempos are quicker than their previous albums and there is more snycopation in the drumming. The songwriting both lyrically and musically is great. Well done!

Alligator hooked me from the start and the hook (and hooks) has only become more firmly embedded since. In fact, I have a hard time listening to all the cuts at one sitting because I wind up putting so many of them on interminable repeat play.

It is no Blonde on Blonde (what is?), but I think maybe twenty or thirty years from now Alligator's listeners will play it on whatever medium music is served up in at that future and they will think, like I do with, from around that Blonde on Blonde era, say, Surrealistic Pillow or the Byrds first album, "whoa, these guys were on to something."

On the very best songs here, the music and voice/lyrics often work at cross-purposes producing a fusion that shouldn't succeed at all but in fact elevates both.

The music first. Try to find a single indulgent or extraneous note in songs like Lit Up, Abel, Friend of Mine or Mr. November. They are, rather, three to four minute hard pop gems, underpinned, and in Abel launched, by a tense and insistent drum line that courses through the song, as guitars, vocals, remix vocals layer on it and the listener tumbles into this deliberate, disciplined mix.

The lyrics, however, are everything but disciplined. They are - for starters -- faintly paranoid (Secret Meeting), confused and louche (Karen, which of course also features a suggested telephone call that can only be embarrassing to all involved in it), achingly loyal (Friend of Mine), satiric and disdainful (All the Wine), full of illusionary control (Lit Up), mixes of promise and delusion (Mr. November, "in the arms of cheerleaders" indeed), and a poster slogan for the designated driver campaign (Abel). But most of all, I think, Alligator matters and will last because it embraces all these impulses (as in Looking for Astronauts - or as my daughter had it the first time she heard the song - Looking for Restaurants, often a little too late for them as well -- "Take all your reasons and take them away/To the middle of nowhere...they all run together and never make sense/But that's how we like and that's all we want."), understanding that complexity and contradiction are in the end what makes us conscious, interesting and human.

Alligator is not perfect. I regularly skip Baby, We'll Be Fine and Val Jester, but as a portrait of a band in journey, journey as in Eliot's great "We shall not cease from exploration..." lines, Alligator is a brave and very successful work.

"I need some meaning I can memorize," Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst once sang. It was a great lyric about a universal need--the need to not just find meaning in this complicated world, but to reduce that meaning into simple truths we can take with us everywhere. And this exquisite album by The National sounds like it was tailor-made to fill that bill. In fact, these songs aren't just memorizable--they're unforgettable.

First, a little note. By my reckoning, there are two types of music lovers: horn people and string people. Horn people can listen to string music, and vice versa, and large swaths of music have neither instrument, but everyone has a preference between the two. For the most part, horns are happy, upbeat daytime instruments. They do some mournful songs, but it's not an everyday thing. And so horn people are bright and full of sunshine, and they get married and live in the suburbs and have 2.3 kids and are always in bed by 10.

This is a string person's album.

But it's far more than that. "Alligator" is one of the most listenable and captivating and sadly underappreciated albums to come our way since the turn of the millennium. It's an album with a lot to say about our loves and lives and lies. If you're anything like me, you'll listen to it a lot, and the more you listen to it, the more you want to listen to it. And you'll save it for after nightfall, for it's one of those lonely, staring-out-your-window-at-the-night-streets albums.

You can trust this album, because it's honest with its feelings, and because it's consistent in the best possible sense--not the I-don't-have-a-lot-of-ideas sense, but the everything's-in-its-right-place sense. Some of the songs are slow and sad, but even the up-tempo ones aren't happy; they are just full of urgency and immediacy to counter the smoky languor elsewhere. The guitars are sometimes charged and sometimes mellow, the strings are sorrowful, and everything swirls together beautifully. And floating half-submerged through the mix, we hear Matt Berninger's wonderful baritone, always sounding as if it's either drowning in drink or spewing it out in anger. It's a perfect voice for this music, sadder than the strings, lonelier than the walk of shame.

Some people sing to the masses; Berninger's singing for an audience of one. You. Actually, it's not so much you, the listener, as it is "you." You the significant other, you the ex, you the best friend and betrayer, you the member of a relationship so important it rarely needs proper nouns. He does name names, here and there--Karen, John, Val Jester, Abel--but in a sense they don't matter. "You're the low life of the party," he sings on "Lit Up", and you don't know if he's singing at you or singing your thoughts, but it works either way, because if you're anything like me, you've lived these songs as the singer, or the singee, or both, and you can play your mental Mad Libs and fill in your own names as needed.

Still, one senses this is a deeply personal album. "Yeah say something perfect, something I can steal," Berninger sings on "Baby We'll Be Fine," and you know (or at least I know, because I spent years quoting my friends and lovers and presenting it as fiction) that's the line of an artist who is literally putting all of himself into his work. There are plenty of stellar moments on this album, but that song highlights what's best about this band. In it, Berninger chants "I'm so sorry for everything," over and over, so often you end up thinking the guy must be Catholic. The specific meaning's enigmatic, but the effect is still hypnotic; these are the mantras we tell others, and tell ourselves, to make this complicated world make sense.

I discovered this album in 07 after hearing their 07' release Boxer ( which is another excellent album) and wish I would have listened to long before, because track for track not much albums are this strong. The Geese of Beverly Road is probably my favorite followed by Abel and then closely by every other track on the album.

I bought this record on the strength of various message boards on the net thinking that the masses could not possibly be wrong. I was right. This might be the best record released in 2005. From the beginning insecurities of SECRET MEETING, to the final promising cries of MR NOVEMBER, this is a moody, brooding masterpiece. It is a gem that is waiting to be discovered by someone willing to surrender to the brilliance of John Berninger & Co.

What I find stands out most apart from the obvious drum engine driving this record forward is the amazing lyrics sung by such an amazing voice. They evoke such imagery very much like Antony and the Johnsons.... self-defeat but tinged with a sense of hope that things will be fine in the end. I also really appreciate how they use the piano in most of the songs. As a piano player myself, I like it when the piano is in the forefront but here they use it so sparingly yet it is so effective. You have to hear KAREN and DAUGHTERS OF THE SOHO RIOTS to know what I am talking about and why I needed to mention it.

Now I don't want you to think this record will put you to sleep because there are full-throttle rock numbers on here.... LIT UP and ABEL to name a couple. It's all good. Although I can hear early U2 influences along with the other references listed in the previous reviews, they are really their own sound. All I can say is if you feel your record collection is missing that special CD of 2005, congrats... you found it. Now buy it!

I LOVE this CD. Buy it. Live it. Maybe it's me and my crazy life but I swear to God these guys are living proof beauty exists!

A friend sent me Mr. November and I was instantly in love with this band. I bought some of their cd's and was just blown away at how powerful each song was. When I saw them live at he El Rey. They came out and walked around a bit and even listened to a few songs by their opening band. It showed that they are very modest as performer. Also, Matt Berninger's voice works with the rest of the bands music. I hate when lead singers sing over the music or are drowned out by the music. Perfect harmony with these guys~!!! :D

Being a newly inducted fan to a band that deserves so much more than they seem to have gotten, I have to toss my hat into their ring. I continue to get a late post- Velvets vibe on repeated listening....I hear John Cale channeled via the Psychedelic Furs. There is a darkness at work and an almost visceral sense of abandonment/loneliness/emptiness in the slower numbers while the more upbeat tunes show glimmers of sunlight lining the edges of the clouds......great work