Boxer

"Like R.E.M. when they were good, The National's superficially simple songs have a real depth and resonance."
- Q Magazine

"A band on top of its game, resulting in a startling masterpiece on par with 'Turn On The Bright Lights', 'Bows and Arrows', or any other austere tribute to urban alienation you care to name."
- Stylus Magazine (10/10)

"The best album I've heard so far this year."
- Slant (10/10)

"Proves 'Alligator' was no one classic wonder."
- musicOMH (10/10)

The National formed in '99, when five friends from Cincinnati, Ohio met again after all of them had relocated to Brooklyn, NY. For years, the band had received critical praise but it wasn't until '05s 'Alligator' that a wider audience finally discovered them. Garnering screeds of positive press, 'Alligator' helped the band sell out large venues across Europe, the UK and the US.

Written over the course of 13 months in Brooklyn, NY, their new album 'Boxer' is the result of a lot of hard work and marks a new chapter in the band's career. Mostly recorded at Tarquin Studios, it was then produced and mixed by the band and Peter Katis {Interpol, Spoon}. 'Boxer' hits as high as 'Alligator' but is a different record - another classic album from a band on top form.

Gothic in its detailing but jaunty in its execution, 'Boxer' is something far richer than orch-pop. It's a sound built with guitar, bass, piano and drums, and festooned with brass, woodwinds, backing vocals, strings and organs. A product of dedicated labour, happenstance and alchemical reactions, the music reveals new layers with each successive listen. There are nods toward a host of iconic Americans: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Raymond Carver, Bob Dylan and the Band and even a bit of Grateful Dead, alongside sketchy suggestions of Leonard Cohen, Grace Paley, Nick Cave, The Smiths and Tom Waits.

But The National's pedigree is becoming harder and harder to trace. They may remind you of distinguished ancestors but, now, The National sound like no one so much as themselves: a meditative rumble that starts in the heart, gets caught in the brain, and resonates outward. A euphoric disconnection, as the band's bio states, all too accurately.

"…bleak, black diamonds - precious, glimmering and lasting…"
- The Onion (10/10)