A pocketful of mumbles

Searching through my 2007 blog entries, I noticed that other than a mention during the mid-year rundown listing my favorite albums of the first half of the year, I haven’t blogged about my #1 Album Of 2007 (Boxer by The National) yet. I figured I’d better do that while it's still timely, and want to give this album the kudos it deserves.



Boxer is really good. Great. Stunningly great. Album of the year good. A total masterpiece from start to finish. And the best way to hear the album is from start to finish. I sometimes skip Boxer songs (besides “Start A War” or “Fake Empire”) when they crop up in shuffle play because they don't play nice with songs by other artists, but everything fits in the context of the album.

When I first heard The National a couple of years ago (someone put “Abel” on a mix CD for me), I wasn't sure what to think. They're a difficult band to appreciate in isolation. Matt Berninger has a singing voice that's definitely an acquired taste ( a deep baritone somewhere between Nick Cave and Leonard Cohen) and their songs rarely crawl above "mid" in the tempo-meter, but there's a lot going on under the surface. Anyhow, I was intrigued enough by "Abel" to download the rest of Alligator from emusic, but wasn't quite as taken by any of the other songs on the album. They all sounded a little samey to me, not as immediate as "Abel" was.

I finally turned the corner on the National when I saw them live late in 2006. I was expecting them be all deep and dour like Nick Cave or Ian Curtis, but they’re completely enthralling live, with lots of interplay between the bandmembers. I just wish they weren't so popular. All three 2007 S.F. shows by The National sold out in Plancks, so I've only been able to see them that one time in 2006. At that show, they played a handful of songs from their “upcoming album” Boxer (this video of "Start a War" was shot at that show) which gave me strong hopes for the album.

The pre-release mp3 ("Fake Empire") helped set the stage for the release of Boxer, and I grabbed the entire album from emusic on the day of release. It took a few listens to sink in, but I kept finding myself listening more and more, at least once a week during my 45 minute commute. Always start to finish from "Fake Empire" to "Gospel". In this age of instant gratification, it's really reassuring that there are still albums like Boxer that reward repeat listening.

This year at the movies was the year of the "three-quel", but my top twenty albums list was full of "four-quels": Boxer is the fourth album by The National, Living With the Living is the fourth Ted Leo/Pharmacists album, Traffic & Weather is the fourth Fountains of Wayne album, Challengers is the fourth New Pornographers album, and Ga x 5 is the sixth Spoon album but the fourth since they signed with Merge and started being good. All contenders for my artist of the decade (2000s) -- it's all down to who releases the best albums in 2008 or 2009.

Most critics and polls have Spoon and the National somewhere in the top ten, and I'm a little concerned that my tastes are jibing too much with the indie consensus. I consider my musical taste to be fairly singular, but as I get older it gets more and more in lockstep with the indiescenti. I think I like what I like, and if other people like it too, it's probably because it's good. Maybe everyone else is finally coming around to My way of thinking?