Odd Blood comes a cropper at times, but mostly this is an involving album of vivid weirdo pop.
It's the natural, assured way in which Heaven Is Whenever moves between building on past glories and breaking fresh ground that's so impressive.
Tin Can Trust is a masterful album from an undeniably great American band, at the peak of its considerable powerers.
Shadows is full of drowsy sweetness and mellow doubt: the sound of a great group ageing gracefully.
At the peak moments of High Violet, The National are magnificent.
Difficult to pin down, Hidden is even harder to forget.
The Big To-Do, it's pleasing to report, rocks as hard and loud as anything they've previously done.
If Funeral was organic, and Neon Bible was force-fed, The Suburbs makes do with being merely delicious. (And a little wistful, wounded, and wise.)
To devotees ... it sounds very much like a second masterpiece: a different kind of epic to "Ys," and one with enough hooks and charms to ensnare at least a few Newsom agnostics.