It might be the name of your favorite bar.

The National

Lis­ten: The Nation­al — “Mis­tak­en for Strangers”

While my review of Arcade Fire’s per­for­mance Sat­ur­day night at the Tow­er The­ater will be show­ing up some­where on Sty­lus in the next few days, I thought I could write a few words about the Nation­al here. They’re got­ten a lit­tle U2-ier since I saw them close for Clap Your Hands Say Yeah at the Khy­ber a cou­ple years ago, and that’s all for the good. Right now I’d say they’re my favorite embod­i­ment of New Earnest­ness in pop music. Since that time they’ve also got­ten the hang of arrang­ing the setlist so they don’t open with a sleepy, grav­el­ly track any­more. It’s fair to say that Box­er will be one of my favorite albums of the year [and I still regret not find­ing room for Alli­ga­tor in my year end list back in ’05.]

3 responses to “It might be the name of your favorite bar.”

  1. bryan Avatar
    bryan

    I’m also final­ly warm­ing up to the Nation­al. The Box­er lp is fine maudlin stuff, and I’m dead set on going back to see what I missed. But for chris­sakes, what’s with your Arcade Fire thing. Jesus, you know I admire you right!? Are you fuck­ing with me?

  2. Blackmail Avatar
    Blackmail

    I’m not. It’s shock­ing how much I still enjoy Neon Bible. Then again, the show may have pushed me over the top a bit. Now I can’t stop lis­ten­ing to Sound of Silver!

  3. bryan Avatar
    bryan

    Was Richard Haw­ley’s ‘Cole’s Cor­ner’ my last year favorite? Box­er is mine for this year. What a ter­rif­ic turn in the weather.