With an opening track entitled “Terrible Love”, I expected something physical, a viciously tough song to blast my senses. A tumultuous rage of fire and guitar squeals. Instead, what came pouring through my speakers was the listless daze of wayfaring dribble. “It’s a terrible love that I’m walking with spiders.” I’m sorry, what? “It takes an ocean not to break.” I guess? Matt Berninger himself has come out to speak lightly of his lyrical meanings as having no specific value, that they are just metaphors for feelings. That kind of cut and paste mentality can certainly work, but here it seems slightly too contrived for comfort.
While maintaining a dismal chug, High Violet, does kick slightly into gear upon the second track, “Sorrow,” and to be honest, I don’t know how the album doesn’t start here. With rushing high-hats and guitars alike, dreamy pianos, and a soft-droning string arrangement, the instrumentation is fluently complimented by a core opening statement “Sorrow found me when I was young.” The polished sound seems to be taken from a different album by the same band. I can tell it’s the same group, but the shift in maturity is, for an instant, startling.
Let’s skip to “Bloodbuzz Ohio.” Appearing roughly midway through High Violet, this is a song that was talked up from the first moment The National announced their new album. For some reason, I could not hear enough about “Bloodbuzz” even though I had never heard it before. With a band like The National, I am so indifferent to the music that my main focus has to be the words. Their compositions are not interesting enough to grasp anything and the noticeably signature tone of vocals make the lyrics becomemy focal point. In “Bloodbuzz Ohio”, a loose picture is drawn retracing the narrator back to his humble Ohio roots where everything is cynical and he only wishes to leave again. He is miserable and only wants to close his eyes until he disappears. Does it live up to the hype? Not exactly, but while being one of the stronger tracks on the album, it provides a proving ground that this album might not live up to the hype either.
Progressing to “Lemonworld,” we get one of the more enjoyable songs on the LP. The guitars are slapped with chorus and smack gently enough with pulsing tom-drums that the heartbeat effect feels impulsively right. Berninger’s lyrics here are the most straightforward. Discussing topics of childhood, the ensuing growth, and eventual bitterness, the vocal melody is always slightly off-beat by attempting to cram too many words and accidental rhymes. The separation of verse chorus verse blends so inconspicuously that ending “Lemonworld” accurately is as easy as a return to the beginning of its loop.
The remaining second side of High Violet floats so sleepily that I sometimes forget my place and forget where things begin or end. Aside from Polanski references of trouble over water in close to every track, the majority of the material is quite forgettable. However, fans already have nothing to worry about, as The National deliver a record that will do nothing less than strengthen their following.