10 years ago, The National enjoyed something of an Indian summer. Infobox. “We’d just come off tour with R.E.M.,” remembers Berninger. The band endured a prolonged period of obscurity from their 2001 self-titled debut album and 2003’s underrated follow-up ‘Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers’; while The Strokes were scoring touchdowns for NYC’s garage rock revival scene, The National were stuck on the bench. We shed our skins, we change, we evolve. We never feel like we achieved what we wanted to do.”. High Violet is the fifth studio album by The National, which was released on May 10, 2010 in Europe and on May 11, 2010 in North America via 4AD. 2005’s ‘Alligator’, their third album, first perfected the combination of dark, raw-nerved realism and heart-bursting indie anthemics that make up the DNA of the band we know today. High Violet is the fifth studio album by The National, which was released on May 10, 2010 in Europe and on May 11, 2010 in North America via 4AD. ... Due to the ongoing global situation, we regret to inform you that our upcoming 2020 Australian & New Zealand tour has been cancelled. I don’t think we ever feel like that. High Violet, the National’s lush masterpiece of grit and sorrow, turns 10 this year. With their fifth set, perhaps the sad-sackiest … The National 2020 - 2021 Tour Dates for their current Tour! Stipe was right. On the plane back to the funeral, his eardrum burst under the cabin pressure, leaving him unable to hear in his right ear for a while. “Sometimes something forces you to shut down for a while,” says Berninger of his run of bad luck, “and you come back and it’s an opportunity to remember why you’re doing this.”. You’ve got all that shit going on but then you get into the studio and the record is how you connect it all back together again. The National. Lyrically, Berninger reels through his usual themes of “trying to figure out who you are and if home is a place”. That pops up in our heads all the time. As promised, the new National album is streaming at the NY Times website now (down the left side next to the article). The music is wide-ranging in its moods, by turns intimate and rough, expansive and spare, full of stark angles and atmosphere. The band produced the album themselves assisted by Peter Katis with whom they worked on their previous albums Alligator and Boxer at their own studio in Brooklyn, New York, and at Katis’ Tarquin Studios in Bridgeport, Connecticut. High Violet, the new full-length record by the National, is a nervy, melodic, explosive and beautiful set of songs that find the band at the height of their collaborative powers. The band produced the album themselves assisted by Peter Katis with whom they worked on their previous albums Alligator and Boxer at their own studio in Brooklyn, New York, and at Katis’ Tarquin Studios in Bridgeport, Connecticut. (Though as he sagely notes with that familiar social-distancing-induced Groundhog Day confusion: “Does time even matter any more?”.). Michael Stipe teased us saying, ‘Why don’t you guys just write a pop song? Government had got so brutal and disgusting with Bush and even Clinton. 2010’s ‘High Violet’ was a landmark record for the band, elevating them from cult curiosity to chart-bothering festival headliners. Q named it their album of 2010 and the band flew off on a vast world tour that would see them play iconic stages such as Glastonbury Festival, the Royal Albert Hall, Radio City Music Hall and Massey Hall. Whatever’s wrong in your heart or in your life, the record absorbs it like a sponge. 10 years later and what’s going on in the White House now seems more backward and “gross” than ever imaginable. I really wanted to so bad.”. In the Obama years, he says, the US exuded “a sense of enlightenment, optimism and possibility”. If they weren’t separated and trapped in their homes right now, The National would be prepping to celebrate ‘High Violet’ by playing it in full at a run of shows peppering the schedule for the final lap of their tour for their acclaimed eighth album, 2019’s ‘I Am Easy To Find’. The band produced the album themselves, assisted by Peter Katis with whom they worked on their previous albums Alligator and Boxer at their own studio in Brooklyn, New York, and at Katis' Tarquin Studios in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Never. The National formed in 1999 in Berninger’s native Cincinnati, Ohio before they moved to New York. And all it took was friendship, fatherhood and advice from Michael Stipe. At the same time, there was so much division. Taking a cue from NPR's Exclusive First Listen Series, The New York Times is getting into the streaming-album-preview game, choosing The National's High On May 15, 2020, The National will release the 10-year anniversary deluxe edition of their 2010 album High Violet. You just pose, you absorb and you try. ‘High Violet’, with a title inspired by overhearing talk of the threat levels in New York after 9/11 (‘high orange’ being the most severe), was the crystallisation of all that they’d previously sought to master – but with a more accessible sheen. We all have the capacity to become whatever we want.”. ‘High Violet’ was us following all of Michael’s advice.”, “Michael Stipe teased us saying, ‘Why don’t you guys just write a pop song’?”, Feeling “happy but depleted and desperate for this record to be good”, they started work, then swiftly halted. I had been in New York for over 10 years [when we wrote ‘High Violet’], and I definitely felt I wasn’t in Ohio any more. The National to Release High Violet 10th Anniversary Edition With Bonus Tracks Coronavirus: Here’s Every Musician Who Has Canceled Tour Dates So Far [UPDATING] Reviews \ I think that’s a thread I always walk along”, “I have so many songs about trying to find out who I am, Berninger says. The searching for who I was going to be – and trying to figure out who I used to be – was all part of that process. “Another thing that Michael Stipe told us was: ‘Remember you were friends first’. 2007’s stately and opulent ‘Boxer’ was showered with acclaim, but the indie darlings were still far from the arena-filling heights of many of their peers. The agutierrezb 2019 record collection challenge So I've decided to embark on my own personal challenge, which consists of listening every record in my collection before the end of the year. View credits, reviews, tracks and shop for the 2020 Purple/Clear Split Vinyl release of High Violet (10th Anniversary Expanded Edition) on Discogs. It seems that The National frontman is in the perfect mood to take stock and look back over the last decade for the upcoming 10th anniversary of the band’s breakthrough album ‘High Violet’. America is finally going to stand up and be what it’s claimed and promised for so long but hasn’t been’. The band's fifth album catapulted them from indie darlings to festival headliners. Official website of The National. The sculpture on the album cover was created by artist Mark Fox, and is called The Binding Force. In typical National fashion, they couldn’t simply savour the taste of success. The venues got bigger, the cult grew stronger and the music press lapped up the ‘nearly-men done good’ narrative. Rated #16 in the best albums of 2010, and #1970 of all-time album.. The National release the 10th anniversary expanded edition of ‘High Violet’ on June 19. Even from this distance, though, he finds it “hard to tell” if he really enjoyed the original ‘High Violet’ shows as much as you might expect. It me happy, then sad, then happy it captures the sadness so honestly ... Sleep Well Beast Trouble Will Find Me High Violet Boxer Alligator. The National have announced that they'll be releasing their seminal 2010 album 'High Violet' on vinyl for the first time – and will celebrate by livestreaming a special show from the era tonight. The album reached Number Five in the UK and Number Three on the US Billboard 100. If they’re coming to your neck of the woods, you should definitely go see them. We wanted to reach everybody. “We loved the record when it was done,” says Berninger, “but whole career was just a series of moments of going, ‘We’ve made it! CAD3X03CD; CD). “I think that’s a thread I always walk along. The record may feature guest spots from indie glitterati such as Sufjan Stevens, Bon Iver‘s Justin Vernon, and Arcade Fire‘s Richard Reed Parry, but they never distract from the record itself. The NME Big Read: The National – “Sex, death and losing – what else is there?”, a record deal for his debut solo album ‘Serpentine Prison. The National now rub shoulders with Arcade Fire and The Strokes as a bonafide indie institution. And guess what? But at the time [it was] hard to have any perspective on it.”, “Meeting Obama seemed more important than being on any big stage”. High Violet is specific and exquisite and if The National were already your thing, you basically knew two years ago how it’d sound. I wanted to be a rock star. I don’t think any of us did. Tickets purchased online … The National. The National have announced they will be releasing a 10-year anniversary expanded edition of their 2010 album High Violet, on June 19th, 2020. This, alongside successful support tours with artists like R.E.M., set them on the path to their current popularity. u/elephantgun42. High Violet, an Album by The National. They’re still playing the long game and winning, with family and friendship at their core. “We’d been a band for 10 years and were exhausted through all the conflict – personal conflict, creative conflict, touring life, living on a bus together for so long. “Seeing a band that good continue to exist and evolve for that long made us realise that we had to go for that. On March 24, the band released "Bloodbuzz Ohio", the first single from the album, for free download at the official High Violet website. “You empathise and get inside their soul a little bit. Take a moment to reflect on that. The National 'High Violet' 10 Year Anniversary LP Out Now Jun 20, 2020 The National Release Never Before Seen Concert Film 'Guilty Party: Basilica Hudson' 10 years ago, The National enjoyed something of an Indian summer. On ‘Afraid Of Everyone’ he sings: “With my kid on my shoulders I try not to hurt anybody I like – but I don’t have the drugs to sort it out”. The National, High Violet (4AD, 2010) Credits Fully aware of their status as a ‘grower band’ (though Berninger laughs that “that always felt like an underhanded compliment”), they set about writing some songs that would connect straight away and on a huge scale. The National Zilker Park, Oct. 10 ... starting off with the low-key "Anybody's Ghost" off the new High Violet. The National are reissuing High Violet to mark the 10th anniversary of the release. In the words of the NME review at the time, ‘High Violet’ was a sign of the band finally becoming “fully grown-up, coloured in and going overground”. The National - Official website. Why did ‘High Violet’ strike such a chord? u/TallSaint. “We knew that we hadn’t fucked up and we knew we weren’t finished. Did we feel like we’d ‘arrived’? Heading into their fifth album, The National had to figure out who they were, and who they wanted to be. The world's defining voice in music and pop culture since 1952. © 2020 NME is a member of the media division of BandLab Technologies. Later, you play it again and all of that emotion comes out again. They’re killing the mainstream right now and if that’s depressing for the lifers, at least it reminds you how smart you are. After a long to-and-fro about how the coronavirus crisis is taking its toll on the physical, mental and societal health of America, he admits that the necessary quarantine has given him “the opportunity to process, slow down and chew on everything in a different way instead of chasing this one upward trajectory”. There was an indiegasm across the internet when the anniversary gigs were announced along with the deluxe vinyl reissue. Berninger admits that “touring was really hard until about five or six years ago”, adding he used to “battle” within himself on stage, but is now far more comfortable in his own skin and less “emotionally wrought”. “Meeting Obama seemed more important than being on any big stage,” says Berninger. United in their vision and ambition, The National would finish what might still be their most cohesive and complete album to date. You can feel this shift from first notes of opener ‘Terrible Love’: it’s there in the Dessners’ genius sonic textures, which are as rich as ever, but this time with a little more warmth, lift and release. ‘High Violet’ spoke loudly to the latest generation of kids who were never picked for the football team, who saw their own story in The National’s tale of geeks longing to be heard. Tickets purchased online … this, alongside successful support tours with artists like R.E.M., set them on the exuded! 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