Return to 2007 #7 – The National – Boxer
I’m returning to 2007 to see how my Best Albums of 2007 list has fared this year before tackling the best of 2008.
My review from the tinyblog:
Okay, I’m always going to be tempted to call them The Nationals, or American Mary, which they almost called themselves back in 2001.When I first heard this album I thought it was pretty boring. I thought their 2003 album, Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers was way more inspiring.
It has grown on me, though. I’ll admit, my top 4 songs carry the whole album, but those songs are great! This guy reminds me vocally of The Magnetic Fields, but without so much of the debauch sexual brokenness. The National is so much more Springsteenlike: political, a little defeated, pretty damn rockin’. By the time they shout, accusingly: “You get mistaken for strangers by your own friends!”, I’m hooked.
One of the songs I love is Racing Like a Pro. For days I had this in my head: “Your mind is racing like a pronoun.” I thought for days about what such a lyric might mean, so impressed by it. Like, which pronoun? Did pronouns race? But no, that’s not The National’s style. The girl in the song’s mind is racing like a pro, now. Oh god, that was a million years ago.
My Sweet Snob Commentary, a year later:
It’s possible this one is a keeper. There’s always a Sunday late afternoon time doing errands where this is the perfect soundtrack to “last night before the work week”. The National’s older albums don’t even do it for me as much. The National is the new soundtrack of being a half-awake city dweller. And… if you live in the city you almost have to be that some of the time. Even the I’m-so-aware-yoga-mommies of Seattle go around in a daze from the sheer weight of rules and schedules city life forces us into.
Racing Like a Pro(noun):
[audio:http://thesweetsnob.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/10-racing-like-a-pro.mp3]Mistaken for Strangers:
[audio:http://thesweetsnob.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/02-mistaken-for-strangers.mp3]