Philly, you get also get a
for the ArchAndroid selection. Oh, and for a solid overall list.
For some reason, blasphemous and jaded-hipster though it may be, now that The National are everywhere, I'm just not into them like I used to be. That said, I've always gone through periods with them of a lot of listening, and then none at all for an extended time, so no biggie. I really enjoyed Alligator, and then got really into them when Boxer came out, saw them 3 times. Since then they've taken everyone by storm with hyperbole in great supply and my National-attention span has lessened. But yeah, as solid as all their albums are (including High Violet, which has individual songs that probably best their entire back catalog), the substance is
for me, but in music terms Boxer remains my favorite, those horns
. OK I'm rambling and surely irritating their cult.
I'm getting closer to making my list, they'll be on it, somewhere in the middle, but man, now I'm hearing National tracks on network sitcoms, I'm glad they've found success and I'm not calling them sellouts or anything cliche like that, it's just that that seems kind of, you know out of place. They were esoteric for a decade, and their sound is low-key, not something you'd expect as montage-backing music on a happy-dappy sitcom. Ahhh, I rambled again.
Edit, on second thought, the reason for my periodic listening may be (beyond often swapping genres and artists) that I always think of their sound as autumnal, despite having first heard them in the summer,
.