the national are a band who only recently came to my attention when they had a special about them on youtube and i watched some of their videos. i was immediately drawn to the deep baritone of singer matt berninger and the images invoked by his lyrics. many compare them, unfairly i think, to editors, white lies, interpol, all those sorts of bands (whom i love by the way!) who have come out influenced by joy division and echo and the bunnymen, etc. the national do tend to get lumped in with the new wave, and the new-new wave, revivalists. i think that mr berninger's voice is an obvious target and people make the obvious comparisons. however, the national's first album came out before even interpol's first and is actually more folky americana than anything else. not that there isn't substance to the accusations though; the band recently performed joy division's "atmosphere" on bbc radio 1 on zane lowe's show and admitted a long standing love of the manchester group so they are coming from a similar place as their alleged kinsmen. however, because of the poetic style of matt's lyrics and the manner in which they are delivered he is more comparable to jim morrison and leonard cohen. because of this i think that there is much more to them meets the eye.
so with that in mind my song du jour is the national's "bloodbuzz ohio" from the album "high violet". i'm off to start smoking 40 camels a day in a vain attempt to sing as low as this!
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