THE NATIONAL - Alligator (2005), listen #2

I started my second play of Alligator on a night when I was stressed out and frustrated, and did so right after listening to Wall Of Eyes, the new record by the Smile.  With the latter record, there were a lot of repetitious guitar and keyboard phrases designed to put the listener in a state, and even though I don’t actually like the way Tom York* sings all that much, I immediately felt willing to give the songs some time and repeat listens to grow on me.  That juxtaposition of the those two records highlighted how much the National are also that sort of band sometimes, or try to be.  It’s been that way since the first record, but that element seems especially pronounced on Alligator.  Most songs start with a guitar-forward track that functions almost like a loop and then plays continuously through the song, building a mood to take the listener into a headspace over which Matt, often tunelessly, weaves in his stories.  This is basically my latest attempt to describe coherently what “indie-rock” sounds like to me, and why I lump the National in with that sound. 

I can see a few of these choruses wearing me down through sheer power and repetition and getting me humming them.  At the moment the biggest earworms I’ve been getting are the chorus of “All The Wine,” which is fine, and the “that man’s a balloon” part from “Friend Of Mine,” which, eh, is slightly annoying.  Again, this is all stuff they’ve been doing since the self-titled debut.  The hook from “American Mary” still frequently pops up in my head, although I can’t say I ever especially need to hear the song again.

Some things that I wish did lodge in my head were a few favorite bits.  Because Alligator is tantalizingly full of individual notes or phrases that I really, really like, making we wish the rest of the songs were like that.  As an exercise, I decided to try to list out from memory the things that made me think “this part is great,” and I know I’m only remembering about half of them:
 - There’s a part in “Secret Meeting” where the vocal melody goes up while the guitar line goes down, and for those fifteen seconds or so everything just clicks
-  The first verse of “Daughters Of The Soho [SoHo?] Riots” – it embodies total resignation and hopelessness in a pretty beautiful way
- The paired vocals at certain particular parts of “Val Jester,” I don’t remember which ones
- The delivery of “c’mon, give me the keys, man” in “Abel.”  The whole song is pretty dope, actually, full of nervous energy.  I doubt it’s actually what it’s about, but I like to imagine that the narrator is clumsily trying to cover up a murder.
- The way when you listen to the record in order, the end of “Abel” melts into the quiet opening of “The Geese Of Beverly Road”
-  In “Mr. November,” the way the Bryan takes over the song and moves us so nicely into and through the last prechorus.  (And I kinda like the way that one just stops so suddenly after its abbreviated final chorus.)
 
That’s a partial list, because Alligator’s bits are standing out to me more than the tracks as a whole.  These bits have me pretty well convinced that, if they choose to, the National are capable of making a record that I’ll really love.  I’m also pretty well convinced that Alligator is not that record.  But it’s worth another spin or two to see which parts grow on me. 
 
As a final note, after my second listen to Alligator, which I finished on another night on which I was stressed and frustrated, I switched to a record by a doom band called Sorcerer and immediately said “fuck yeah, this is what I want to listen to when I’m frustrated.”  I feel like that says something or other about my tastes overall.
 
- Favorite track:  “Abel”
- Runner up: “Mr. November”
- Least favorite track:  “City Middle”
- Working rating:  2.5/5
 
Listen #3 whenever I get around to it!
 

*With internet space being at a premium in the post internet freedom era, my blog does not have the resources to include unnecessary letters in singers’ names.** 

**Joke stolen from David Thorpe at the old Something Awful website

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