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I think I can say without hesitation that since I discovered them, unfortunately only three years ago (thanks to the advice of a friend), the Americans THE NATIONAL have become absolutely my favorite group in recent listening, in an immediate and lightning-fast way, both for their evident quality as musicians and for the most evident characteristics right from the first listen.
Now, three years after the previous one, they are back with their sixth and new work, an album with the always emblematic title “Trouble Will Find Me”, again for 4AD (never disappoints).
Yes, because time passes, singles change, and to some extent, the sound evolves, but not the group's decadent spirit, the dark atmospheres, slightly dark in the strict sense, with that attention to retro sound revisited in a modern key and that sense of inevitability that permeates every track.
Yet something has changed.
Despite the inherent drama of every word, thought, and melody remaining, this drama is somewhat eased compared to their previous works, while still staying true to their musical and philosophical path, so to speak.
But I don't feel that this path is more commercial than in the past, nor can I speak of greater and unexpected brightness.
How can you change while remaining consistent and true to your origins?
How can you remain a modern band, faithful to the purest new wave, still so similar to the iconic bands of yesteryear (again the Joy Division?) yet so different both in sounds and intentions?
Their alchemy is inexplicable to me but it takes hold and works, and for me, it does so like fast-setting cement.
There is never a flaw, neither in Matt Berninger's baritone voice, which still comes straight to the stomach with sweetness and strength, nor in the arrangements faithful to a musical culture I grew up with, nor in the always intimate and profound lyrics.
Yet, they are so current and innovative in their way of representing the new wave that today we call Indie rock, in singing their folk ballads that we define as dark, in revisiting a decadent rock by making it contemporary.
I waited for this CD for three long years, and today it's in my player and my iPod on continuous rotation.
Having music like this in 2013, having it more and more…….
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