THE NATIONAL
Boxer
The National is a really slow moving band, and it took them four years to carefully carve out their masterpiece, Boxer from 2007. The National being The National, honestly there isn't much to say, many superlatives to attribute to this album, other than it being straightforward astonishing. The rich and moving arrangements, anchored by Bryan Devendorf's unsurpassed drumming, are the perfect backdrop to Matt Berninger's charismatic and very powerful baritone. The beginning of the album is pretty straight on, with the philosophic 'Fake Empire' and the annoyed 'Mistaken For Strangers', but what really truly makes Boxer shine is the impressive array of beautiful ballads. There's the magnificent couple of 'Green Gloves' and the poignantly anxious and almost incomprehensibly fragile 'Slow Show', the album's key track and an absolute masterpiece. But look a little farther down the track list and you'll find 'Ada', which is a true gem - a song that combines the band's folk roots with their knish for adding delicate sprinkles of horns and brass. More than anything, Boxer is just an incredibly pleasant album by one of the most talented bands in indie.
OH NO ONO
Eggs
This, now, is a real coming of age. Whereas this Danish outfit's first album was sort of bland and uninterestingly poppy, from the first second, Eggs clearly marks out new territory for this silly-turned-psychedelic motley assembly of amazing musicians. Opener 'Eleanor Speaks' is a pompous, oriental-inspired track, which sort of readies the listener for the journey that Eggs really is. From here on, one ingenious, masterful track gives way to another and yet another. Oh No Ono utilize a remarkable amount of instruments and timbres, and nowhere has the band compromised anything. I am a big fan of thorough mixes and lush, vivid productions, and listening to Eggs in my phones is really a treat for the ears. There's the baroque and beautifully lurching 'Swim', the dramatic 'Icicles', the kraut-influenced 'The Wave Ballet' and 'Beelitz', the uplifting 'The Tea Party', but also lesser escapadic and experimental, but nevertheless absolutely well-crafted, pop-tunes such as 'Internet Warrior' and 'Helplessly Young'. But the highlight of them all might very well be the painful 'Eve'; a real flip-off to the ones who hoped Eggs would be another over fresh indie-pop effort. I am very impressed by how, on this track, this young band throws off every harness in which they've ever been, every template of radio-friendly pop they've ever followed, even every instrument they've ever played (as the track is completely electronic), to really utter their inner torments, beautifully expressed by Aske Zidore's marvelous voice and a ballad seldom paralleled in anguish and sincereness.
ARCTIC MONKEYS
Humbug
Speaking of comings-of-age, here's yet another one. A lot of (now perhaps former) die-hard fans of this Sheffield foursome were disappointed when Humbug came, almost exactly a year ago. I, however, found it a refreshing new start for the still young band. Granted their debut Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not is still an unbeatable album in many ways, Humbug really showcases the Monkeys' talent for songwriting, rather than just their attitude. In many ways, the ballads of the band's two previous albums have been among those albums' most longevous tunes, and on Humbug, Alex Turner and co. turn down the tempo a notch, and turn the murkiness up. The album is refreshingly oblique, but, especially owing to Alex Turner's voice, you're not at any time in doubt about the band in question. 'Potion Approaching' rocks, 'Fire and the Thud' creeps passionately, 'Cornerstone' is cornily touching and 'Pretty Visitors' wallows in malicious energy. There's no 'I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor' here, but there's a sincereness and maturity that suits the Sheffielders very well, and could well brace them for a longer and more immersive career than their debut album's straightforwardness indicated.
BON IVER
For Emma, Forever Ago
In many was, I have dreaded the day I eventually would have to apply words to this extraordinary masterpiece of an album, and I've pondered for a long time, what exactly makes these 37 minutes unlike anything else. Ultimately, I think it's got a lot to do with both the intimacy and the urgency that envelops Bon Iver's tragic tale of love lost. I mean, this is so raw. The random surrounding noises that recur throughout the album make you almost feel like you're there with Justin Vernon in his cabin in the heart of Wisconsin winter. You're the one brewing him coffee, and tossing a new log on the crackling fireplace, while he, immersed like a madman on a killing spree, squeezes out his innermost feelings on this iconic album. It is so intense, and so vitally imperative. For Emma, Forever Ago is essentially the breakup album of breakup albums, but the astonishing thing is, you get into the album's painful mood regardless of anything that surrounds you. There's a continuousness to this - Vernon's feelings assemble and dismantle themselves in this his excavation, as explained on the closer 're: Stacks'. The album is coercingly undivisible. 'Flume' and 'Lump Sum' build up to the emotional climax that is 'Skinny Love', followed by 'The Wolves', which is Vernon at his emotional low. Nothing in the world gets more grieving and bereft than this. Enter the albums second half, where, through 'Blindsided' and 'Creature Fear', Vernon manages to reassemble himself, and, although still in much pain and anguish, tries hard to move forward in some, in any, way, enabling him to reach some sort of conclusion on 'For Emma' and 're: Stacks'. Vernon's lyrics are often pretty indecipherable, but nevertheless his chillingly agitated melodies and arrangements tell the whole story. It is not yet a happy man that exclaims that "your love will be safe with me", lets his guitar ring out, turns off his equipment and leaves. It is not a man at peace, but it is a man who has tried his hardest to weep, cry, holler, sing and fight his way out of pain. The message and the agony of For Emma, Forever Ago is universal. We've all had our Emma, or even two or three of them. We've all had the woman, the girl, the man, the boy who has painfully and slowly exited our heart. Whoever Bon Iver's Emma was, it is perhaps thanks to her that the world has been enriched by this unequaled and utterly brilliant magnum opus.
