The National: High Violet

I missed the boat on the National until late 2007, when Paste made dubbed Boxer as the album of the year.  I gave the album a listen and was immediately repulsed by Matt Berringer's vocals.  I thought, "This is the album of the year?"  I kept listening, hoping that I would "get it."  Long story short: I got it.  Once I embraced Berringer's baritone, I was sold on the National's combination of good music and great lyrics.

At the initial listen of High Violet(only $6.99!), I was a little disappointed; I can't really explain it, but I felt like something was missing.  I think, however, that I expected to be immediately bowled over, but that's not how the National works.  For each of their albums (I got my mitts on Alligator in '08), there was a period of 4-5 listens where I had to feel things out.  Once I got through those initial listens, I was, indeed, bowled over.

Broken Social Scene: Forgiveness Rock Record

The other Canadian supergroup released Forgiveness Rock Record (FRR) on the same day as The New Pornographers put out Toghether (perhaps a bizzaro-Canadian version of the 50 Cent vs. Kanye battle?).  I'm not sure about the sales figures of the respective albums (my money would be on TNP), but as far as brilliance, the nod goes -- rather easily -- to Broken Social Scene (BSS).

I'd never been much of a BSS fan.  My brother-in-law introduced me to the band back in '05, so I picked up their self-titled double-disc album, but I could only get into about half the tracks (skipping the other half; the same holds true for You Forgot It In People).  FRR, however, doesn't have a throwaway track; pretty much every other song is a favorite and there is no skipping involved (and that's without much involvement from Leslie Feist).  Of the album's thirteen tracks, I rated seven of them as four- or five-star tracks.

The New Pornographers: Together

This Canadian supergroup (with, uhh, a unique name) put out one of 2007's best albums (top 20, at least), so I was pretty pumped about their latest release back in early May.  However, I ended up being a little underwhelmed.

Together starts off with much promise, and the first three songs have that classic TNP feel.  Pretty upbeat (read: poppy) compared to the first third of Challengers.  "Moves," "The Crash Years," and "Your Hands (Together)" are all fantastic.  The rest of the album, for the most part, doesn't seem to match the pace or the quality of the songs at the album's outset (with the exception of "Up in the Dark").  As with previous albums, I'm not a fan of the songs on which Dan Bejar (of Destroyer) sings ("Silver Jenny Dollar," "If You Can't See My Mirrors").  His voice just kills me.

Plants and Animals: La La Land

I first stumbled across Plants and Animals (P&A) in the summer of '08 while watching Patrick Watson YouTube videos.  The labelmates form a pretty strong one-two punch for the small Secret City Records.  P&A's 2008 release, Parc Avenue, was absolutely fantastic, so I had high hopes for La La Land.  Like some other bands' 2010 efforts (Joe Pug, Vampire Weekend, Band of Horses, New Pornographers), I was a little disappointed.

Parc Avenue was a feast for the ears, both musically and lyrically; Land leaves a little bit of both to be desired.  I'm certainly not against bands changing their sound (hey there Sufjan), but it's got to be executed to near perfection if you're going to pull it off.  Land leaves behind the sprawling, '70s gypsy jam band behind in favor of something a little more modern (?), titling one of it's songs "Tom Cruz."  They explained that the song was all about having fun (and paranoia?), and Mr. Cruise apparently came to mind.

Horse Feathers: Thistled Spring

If you've talked to me for the past two years, I have probably chewed your ear off about this set of Portlanders.  They dropped their third LP back in April and I immediately fell in love -- I know, big surprise -- but what is surprising is that I love Thistled Spring just as much as House with No Home (my favorite album of '08).

Lead singer Justin Ringle and his compatriots didn't change their sound that much from '08 until now, but there's enough differentiation to make it feel like a new album.  Horse Feathers also prove that you can judge an album by its cover.  Home featured an old barn atop a snow-covered hill, suggesting emptiness and melancholy, while Spring's cover is budding leaves, suggesting new life.  However, the music seems to fit the season of spring, but there is a lyrical undertone that suggests death instead of life, as evidenced in the song "Starving Robins."  That's something that's so amazing about Horse Feathers: they can sing about death in such a beautiful sounding setting.  This is also true with my favorite track, "The Drought" (which is, not surprisingly, about a severe lack of water):


I'll be honest: the first two or three times I heard that song I held my hands over my mouth and sat silently.  I probably could've forced some tears or something.  Breath-taking.  Haunting.  Beautiful.  "It's bearing down on me, / There's no clouds in the sky. / [I] Hear the pines crack and cry, / There's no reason to try."  Stuff is dying in that song, but the sonic beauty somehow envelops the lyrical sadness, and pushes past it ... but to what, I don't know.  I would absolutely love to have a long sit-down conversation with Justin and the gang about the lyrical content versus the overall sound.

Grade: A+
Blurb: I'm not sure how the best keep getting better, but these guys do it. It'll be a miracle if this isn't my favorite album of the year when January rolls around.