Boxer - The National

Track list:

1. Fake Empire
2. Mistaken For Strangers
3. Brainy
4. Squalor Victoria
5. Green Gloves
6. Slow Show
7. Apartment Story
8. Start A War
9. Guest Room
10. Racing Like A Pro
11. Ada
12. Gospel

Running time: 42 minutes
Released: 2007

I saw this around everywhere before I finally picked it up. Can't for the life of me remember why I chose to grab it though, but I seem to recall liking it, and I bought the follow-up too so I must have had an affection for the way The National went about things. I can't really remember any of their songs though (save Rains of Castermere, of course).

We begin with a bouncy piano in isolation, but as soon as the vocal starts I am reminded why I liked this. The deep resonant tones of the singer give a really nice round sound, convey a sense of distance and space and... yeah. One aspect of music that made it over the pond, which is rarer in material of these shores, is that big sky feeling. Its the same sense of openness that drew me to Willard Grant Conspiracy, Grand Drive (though they were based in Blighty) and... someone else I was going to mention specifically but who I have completely blanked on now.

The second track is pacier, more constrained and percussion led. It sort of works, but I feel that it probably is not playing to their strengths as I perceive them; there are better proponents of this kind of song though again I fail to bring any to mind at the point where that would be helpful! I am taking a quick (well... 45 minute I guess!) break from cleaning - a chore that was very desperate and will carry on into tomorrow; part of the need for a week off, and it is nice to have a relatively bite-sized album to dive into. The tune has grown on me whilst I have been digressing and I find myself enjoying it more as it fades. Brainy keeps a similar pace and percussive bent, but lets the vocal free again. It is like Mistaken For Strangers was stuck in a tunnel whilst before and after the songs have clear sky above. My problem with tracks that are driven by rhythm like this one is that the beat pattern becomes so front and centre that my mind can't tear away from it. This poses me issues in true enjoyment because I then inevitably latch on to how repetitive that sound is (let alone that that is the point of rhythm) and grow tired of the track because I followed the wrong thread. This is my issue, not the song's.

I like the interplay between forceful drums and soft, understated keys - but I would, ideally, favour the keys more than the drums in the balancing. Not so the production on Squalor Victoria, or maybe that is me grabbing the wrong straw again; either way the track breezes by and we get a very different feel on Green Gloves. The percussion is noticeably missing or stripped right back early on, nice little riffs replacing it, it gives a much more relaxed air to the piece.

The vocals really are the star though. Drawl. Tone. Atmosphere. In the right place and right time... I wouldn't want to listen to this style all the time but when paired well with sounds to support it, that easy, lazy sound of a throat I imagine wetted with whisky and parched by tobacco (whether that applies to this frontman or not) has an appeal. I think The National do a pretty decent job of fitting their music around the distinctive voice and approach. One thing that surprises me a little - but shouldn't do when looking at the number of tracks and total running time - is that each song is over very fast. I tend to associate Americana like this with longer tracks, more time to go with the sense of space. Not so here. Unlike Lambchop (they were whom I was to reference earlier and forgot), here that openness is conveyed whilst still sticking pretty closely to a radio-friendly song structure. I find this to be a plus point, because it takes a fair amount of craft to create time and space when so limited, and I find myself appreciating that. Limits are good for creativity, not bad for it. They may be bad for vision, mind.

Start a War is more subdued, tired, and it enervates me. Suddenly I just want to sleep. That unfortunate effect aside I like the tune, but my heavy eyelids disagree. It's the middle of the day for hell's sake. Guest Room returns to the previously established standard and I find myself wondering if a whole album isn't a little too much of a good thing. There is a touch of samey-ness about it that builds a sense of ennui - or perhaps that ennervation just switched me off their wavelength.

It was a choice between listening or shaving as a break from the cleaning (bathroom next - joy), and this won out. I do desperately need both shave and haircut though; I'm feeling decidedly unkempt. Hopefully the half term haircuts are mostly out of the way by now and Friday wont see a massive queue at the barbers. Find out tomorrow. On the record, we have another softer, percussion-light piece and I am not really engaged. Perhaps it is just the repeated lyric "You're dumbstruck baby" grating; I am anything but. I suspect on its own it would have come across better. That said, I really like the tune on Ada, and when the piano, and horns join the appeal reaches peak. This is a really nicely crafted song, though the vocal is less appealing here than it was on the first few tracks of the disc. Some of that might be the clarity of the lyrics and how trite I find them, so I try to tune out the singing and just follow the flow of the track. I enjoy it more that way.

Final number now. Gospel is slower, voice and guitar base, support added. It feels a little weak compared to what I was hearing half an hour ago. This just makes me appreciate the short songs more, though; shuffle isn't so different to radio, and these feel radio-friendly. I don't really begrudge these last tracks even though I have found them less engaging than the early ones and I can see them being more enjoyable in a different context. So, silence falls and I must depart to get the rubber gloves on...

Beware - Bonnie 'Prince' Billy

Track list:

1. Beware Your Only Friend
2. You Can't Hurt Me Now
3. My Life's Work
4. Death Final
5. Heart's Arms
6. You Don't Love Me
7. You Are Lost
8. I Won't Ask Again
9. I Don't Belong To Anyone
10. There Is Something I Have To Say
11. I Am Goodbye
12. Without Work, You Have Nothing
13. Afraid Ain't Me

Running time: 45 minutes
Released: 2009

I have a couple of albums from Bonnie 'Prince' Billy. I am not sure what drove me to pick them up or what I made of them when I did, but it is probably connected to a brief yearning for Americana. This is more discovery than anything else, then, for I cannot have listened to many of these tracks very often.

It opens with a really appealing guitar, a fairly simple loop but it immediately taps into my buoyant morning mood. I get older today and am not working, a lazy day of listening to the cricket and writing up my last RPG session ahead of me and I am squeezing this in first thing. The song uses a harmony nicely, the combination of sounds, voices and words is slightly messy but in a compelling way that invites listening, rather than the cacophonous sense that was evident on The Beta Band. It is a much stronger, brasher start than I was expecting, as my preconception was that Bonnie 'Prince' Billy was all fairly stripped back.

More like You Can't Hurt Me Now, in fact. A somewhat trembling voice, and a sparse construction echoing the wide open spaces and big sky landscapes that typify Americana. I could imagine this refrain drifting over ranch-land in the days of the frontier. It could be soundtrack to set the scene for a game of Dogs in the Vineyard. Hard to say where my appreciation for this drifting, stylised sound came from. I am pretty sure that my first conscious exposure to "modern" Americana was Willard Grant Conspiracy but I have no clue how I stumbled across them. Anyhow, from there LastFM came into play and threw me up some other suggestions. Actually, thinking about it, I might have that the wrong way around; it may have been LastFM throwing up suggestions based on Grand Drive.

That's not important anyway. What is more important is that like an idiot I forgot to switch WMP off shuffle so actually the listen has not been in running order, aside Beware Your Only Friend. Bugger. I don't have time to reset and restart, so I am going to have to continue. I am relatively sure that a) I will still only get each track once (repeat is not on) and b) that I am unlikely to dislike anything here enough to want it out, and even if I do I can respond to that immediate dislike.

What gives me that feeling? Well for a start I am in a good mood and approaching the listen in relaxed fashion which helps, but more pertinently everything I have heard thus far - about a third through by time - has been interesting. There is a discordance in some of it, but it is very controlled and deliberate, adding an edge but held in check to make it an interesting one - this applies most consistently to the vocal harmonies between Will Oldham (the man behind the moniker) and his backing singers, but I think I hear some in the jangling guitar vs. the structural strings too.

OK, so shuffle is no good. I have a repeat. It has occurred to me that I can use LastFM to work out what I have and haven't heard though. That second paragraph refers to Without Work, You Have Nothing, by the by - though it is fair to say You Can't Hurt Me Now also conforms to the preconceptions I had of the artist now that I am directing this playthrough. The only piece that does not, perhaps, is the xylophone, which feels out of place amongst the gently swaying countrified plod. Plod - its not a positive word really is it? I think it fits here - the pace is slow to warrant it - but without the dragging, uninteresting connotations. Somehow it plods positively.

My Life's Work seems to hybrid the brasher sounds, largely delivered by the lead guitar with the general pleasantry and reservations of the album as a whole. It forms a compelling track of ups and downs, and then throws a curveball by introducing a mouth organ or other blown instrument in the more orchestrated sections - an element that has been missing to this point, or at least had passed me by. I am finding that I prefer the songs that have a bit more depth of sound to them - contrasting the typical trappings of Americana with a richer, louder centre - but still enjoying the more standard fare.

Its funny, I have a feeling that on a general library-wide shuffle then if I was at the keys I probably wouldn't let any of these tracks get started before hitting the skip. I am beginning to suspect that is a massive mistake. There is something here for any mood. As you might expect, the sparser tracks would suit quieter moods better, but there is some proper joy here too. You Don't Love Me brings a trumpet in for another new sound and this really works for me - I have been a sucker for a well used trumpet since forever.

Two tracks left to go. I am still enjoying the music, but with an eye on the clock I am willing it to end before it reasonably can as I want to get the radio on and bring up TMS. I am forgoing the first 5 minutes of build up to the 4th Ashes test for this - no play, you understand. I wouldn't have countenanced that. I Won't Ask Again is very different from the rest of the songs here. Many of the structures are similar but the overall effect has a completely different tone, in a way that I wish I could articulate, but find myself failing to.

I skip to the end now, the last track being the only one unplayed following the shuffle mix-up. It again has a different tone, a bit darker without being oppressive in the verse, bright in the chorus. A flute or similar soaring over the general tumult. It is a different sort of big sky music - this is not drifting out over open plains but appealing to the heavens in a concentrated burst and would not be out of place on a film soundtrack somehow. I think Afraid Ain't Me is probably my second favourite track here after the opener which really set the tone for this listen by breaking my expectations first up.

I'm happy about this one, finally validating a purchase of several years back. I doubt I will run out and buy more of Oldham's work - unless I am similarly impressed by Lie Down in the Light - but it is a nice little nugget to have on the shelf.