The National
The Virginia EP

Strange. I discovered the music of The National with this EP, a minor format that by definition either serves as an appetizer (useful for biding time while waiting for the main course) or is used to clear out the drawers of more or less unreleased and generally not first-choice material. For The Virginia EP, the second option applies, which brings together a collection of demos, b-sides, and live versions without giving the impression of scraping the bottom of the barrel, given the quality of the music contained here.

The calmness of the opening track "You've done it again, Virginia" and especially the martial cadence of "Santa Clara" would have deserved a place in the tracklist of "Boxer"; but even evidently minor episodes like "Tall Saint" and "Without Permission" only serve to confirm the group's qualities, from Bryan Devendorf's never banal drumming to Matt Berninger's voice, capable of invoking both the most intimate Leonard Cohen and the less mystical Nick Cave (passing through Ian Curtis) recalling something from each of these voices but still retaining his own very personal style.
The most preferable part comes with the live tracks that occupy the latter part of this work. If the version of "Fake Empire" is almost business as usual, the choice to cover Springsteen is surprising, with a touching rendition of "Mansion On The Hill". The last emotion comes from a spectacular version of "About Today", a song already included in the EP Cherry Tree: the original four-minute version, when performed live, is transformed into a long and subdued crescendo (with Padme Newsome's violin providing the necessary pathos and the skillful use of percussion), with a finale in which the listener is submerged by a whirlpool of dissonances and feedback.

Self-celebratory like many operations of this kind? Perhaps. Aimed at The National's completist fans, this EP (so to speak: almost 50 minutes long) could be a good starting point for those who want to deepen their knowledge by starting from here.