There isn't a bad song on the album, and generally when people say things like that they seem to imply that there are still a few duds here and there. But High Violet is literally free of weak moments.
High Violet is carefully considered without being labored, richly detailed without being fussy.
It is a wild, vivid romance that The National make their own, and on High Violet it sounds just as striking, just as wild, just as vivid as ever.
High Violet is one of those rare albums where a band’s rising profile and rising talent meet in a perfect storm of anticipation and excellence.
"High Violet" synthesizes the best parts of the National's past into a fantastic present.
This band has a peerless ability to make music which seeps into your consciousness, slowly ferments and finally produces a musical wine of such intoxicating majesty you’re left dumbstruck.
There’s a wry beauty in subtle morbidity, and the National has struck it on High Violet.
With High Violet they are not just playing on the tension like Boxer but taking that idea and building on it, and thats the thing with The National. They build, they build honestly and meaningfully, they build a place inside your heart. Each album sits like a footprint in the snow.
They’ve taken some minor risks, tailored their sound, and emerged with a record that can stand confidently beside Boxer and Alligator, all without overdoing or losing any of its predecessors’ merits.
The National’s latest is easily up there with the very best indie-rock records of the year.
High Violet isn’t simply The National’s best album; it’s already one of the strongest album of this young decade and will likely continue to be, even in another nine years from now.
If all of the band’s records had a loose thematic core running through to them, High Violet is the band’s most grown up record – mirroring the now late-30something group’s outlook on life.
Everyone keeps saying that this is a sad album. It’s not. It’s an honest album, a real album. And it’s breathtaking.
High Violet is the sound of a band taking a mandate to be a meaningful rock band seriously, and they play the part so fully that, to some, it may be off-putting.
A massive, dynamic album that still makes good on the National’s devotion to meticulous production and a sound they’ve kept simple and distinctive for a decade.
Their fifth album High Violet is slow to blossom; its sumptuous layers and stately pace can feel almost funereal, and frontman Matt Berninger often sounds badly in need of Paxil. But Violet eventually burrows in, and stays.
Though High Violet lacks the front-to-back consistency that made Boxer such an unmitigated revelation, the new album’s peaks absolutely rival Boxer’s best tracks.
High Violet summons up perfectly and terribly the sneaking suspicion you start getting in your 20s that possibilities are closing off, that your life might not turn out the way you wanted it to, and that there’s probably no-one else to blame but yourself.
‘High Violet’ sees an already cherished band fine-tune their flaws to become something truly beguiling and brilliant. Astonishing.
Simmering more than it strikes, High Violet coaxes you into baroque indie darkness rather than shines bright pop lights.
There is unarguably a gravity to both Berninger’s voice and the band’s musical sensibilities that carry the album. It’s this combination that makes these songs so visceral and emotionally impacting.
Crafted from humming guitars, tinkling pianos, militaristic drumming and occasional orchestration, their fifth album is beautifully subtle and grows in power with each listen.
At the peak moments of High Violet, The National are magnificent.
Darker and more introspectively brooding than ever, in places it’s the most immediate National effort since their overlooked eponymous debut.
Building on 2007's Boxer, High Violet should keep the melancholic band's aging indie fans crying into the future.
Should I be so surprised that High Violet ... represents their most, self-serious, dour and morose release yet?
High Violet is a fine album, a very, very solid effort that contains some marvelous storytelling and near perfect execution. There are no faults to speak of. But that electricity, that fly by the seat of your pants thrill is something that eludes The National.
Singer Matt Berninger's gorgeous baritone is still the band's main selling point ... Yet the tension comes mainly from composers Aaron and Bryce Dessner: The music is some of their lushest and darkest.
Muscular, miserable, mighty, and meandering, High Violet aims for the seats, but only hits about half of them.
Falls away from Boxer's overwhelming quietness as they fill the erstwhile emptiness with distorted guitars, strings, brass: an ambient tangle.
The National's latest is loaded with lush production and somber vocals, but the album may be a little too melancholy for its own good.
Despite a sincere lack of happy hardcore bangers or light-relief comedy skits, ‘High Violet’ is a tight, no-nonsense follow-up to 2007’s critically acclaimed ‘Boxer’.
I had to give this album some time to grow on me, but once it clicked, it clicked. I mainly gave it a chance because of Bloodbuzz Ohio which is just a gorgeous sad song, It's my 2nd favorite from The National after Nobody Else Will Be There. I just love the ballads the most from this band. That's kind of the issue I had with Sleep Well Beast, it started off with one of the best songs I've ever heard, but the rest just wasn't sad enough and good enough for me. I might re-listen to it, it might ... read more
Me in Kindergarten with my crayons
I wasn’t really sure if The National could get much better than Boxer, but I was proven wrong with this album. High Violet is absolutely fantastic. It takes the best parts of the stuff I’ve heard from The National, and mushes it all together. I’d say this album is a little less indie rock and a little more pop (at least for their standards), but I don’t mind at all. The way it does it is just absolutely fantastic and all of the ... read more
High Violet, sees the National slowing turning to the more chamber pop oriented soundscape for their indie rock for quite a grand and mellow listen which offers some of the most introspective and sadness lyrics the band has put out and thus creates quite an emotional 47 minute rollercoaster and still stands as one of my favorite from the band.
Track Review
Terrible Love 9.5/10
Sorrow 9/10
Anyone’s Ghost 8.5/10.
Little Faith 8/10
Afraid of Everyone 8.5/10.
Bloodbuzz Ohio ... read more
fucking breathtaking
i love how every song on this sounds so weak and tired and yet hopeful at the same time
it emanates a melancholic triumph that i think is a legitimately really difficult feeling to get across
the standard two guitars, bass and drums (don't even get me started on the drums bro) are accented perfectly by piano and both beautiful string and horn sections throughout the album, but the band always knows when to keep it mellow and simple and when to explode into a maximalist ... read more
Took a few tracks to fall into the vibe, but when I did, it fully took me over. Great record.
1 | Terrible Love 4:39 | 91 |
2 | Sorrow 3:25 | 91 |
3 | Anyone's Ghost 2:54 | 89 |
4 | Little Faith 4:36 | 86 |
5 | Afraid of Everyone 4:19 | 87 |
6 | Bloodbuzz Ohio 4:35 | 95 |
7 | Lemonworld 3:23 | 84 |
8 | Runaway 5:33 | 82 |
9 | Conversation 16 4:18 | 91 |
10 | England 5:40 | 86 |
11 | Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks 4:12 | 90 |
#1 | / | DIY |
#1 | / | musicOMH |
#1 | / | Pretty Much Amazing |
#1 | / | The Line of Best Fit |
#2 | / | Drowned in Sound |
#2 | / | PopMatters |
#2 | / | Rhapsody SoundBoard |
#2 | / | Spinner |
#3 | / | A.V. Club |
#3 | / | Gigwise |