MOG

Nr 2 of my top 10 countdown of 2007

Band: The National Title: Boxer Best Track: Slow Show Best Line: “It’s just another uninnocent, elegant fall into the unmagnificent live of adults.”

Trivia: The fourth album of The National “Mistaken for Strangers” was the first single Saw them live at De Melkweg Lines of “Slow Show” were already used on the track “29 Years” of their debut

Maybe over a year, or a couple of years, when looking back I will say that this album was the essential and defining album of 2007, or perhaps this decade. Because of what the number one meant to me this year (and it is a 2007 list after all) I just could not put it at number one just yet. But the more you listen to the album the more beautiful it becomes, and the more urgent as well. Filled with magnificent stories and emotions, "Boxer" grabs you by the throat and never lets you go, and the funny part is you don't want it to. Delivering punch after punch, more often than not right in the gut, "Boxer" makes you reflect on your life, on what you are doing, and on what you want to be doing. Berninger angrily yet sadly warns "Walk away now, and you're gonna start a war", he hopelessly reflects "It's another uninnocent, elegant fall into the unmagnificent life of adults", he melancholically states "they find us here, here in the guest room, where we throw money at each other and cry", and on the verge of losing the one he loves, he fraily says "I wanna hurry home to you, put on a slow, dumb show for you, and crack you up" as if it is the thing he wants the most, a romantic picture with which he wants to revive the love and innocence they once had, but which at the moment seems so far away.

I could talk hours about the lyrics, about the themes, about the sense of lostness and the sense of not wanting 'this'. Also funny is that with every listen, I tend to have a different favorite. Not particularly loving one track one minute, and then completely in awe with it the next. This album is our life. Take the time, and layer by layer you will discover more riches, and through different stages of life you will get different things out of it. Some people do not believe that art or literature or a knowledge about history or indeed a good album can add anything to your social consciousness, to your life, but if you do believe that, then this album is one that should never leave your record collection. This album is to music what Campbell's Soup Cans is to pop-art, what "1984" is to modern literature, and what "Modern Times" is to comedy: Essential, thought-provoking, and of exquisite beauty.

"But if 2007 ends up being the year the National finally achieve real triumph, there's no reason to root against it. After a stunning achievement like Boxer, no band deserves it more."- Stylus

"The Brooklyn band's new Boxer is even more measured and seemingly mellow than 2005's incredible Alligator, but bubbling under the dark, glassy surface are smart, engaging songs that will stay imprinted on brains when others' weightless melodies are relegated to memory's attic." - A.V. Club

"Like those on their last album, these songs reveal themselves gradually but surely, building to the inevitable moment when they hit you in the gut. It's the rare album that gives back whatever you put into it."- Pitchfork