THE NATIONAL - Alligator (2005), listens #3-4

I sometimes wonder whether listening to a record over and over inherently makes it easier to appreciate; will I prefer the stuff I listen to more often even if it's something I'm "assigning" myself in the name of a project rather than something I'm organically choosing to listen to?  Will songs just grow on me automatically? 

Well, in a huge shock to nobody, it depends on the song.  There are definitely parts of Alligator that benefitted from repeat spins.  And there are definitely parts that did not.  Starting from the beginning, when I listen to the record straight through there's always a "hey, this is actually pretty good" moment.   "Secret Meeting" was a slow grower for me, but it's quite a nicely composed song.  I like the interplay of the swirling guitar parts and the two complementary vocal melodies, especially the parts when they go back to the "I'm sorry I didn't see you" part right on top of the otherwise lackluster chorus.  And the verses of "Karen" have an absolutely gorgeous main riff.  Yeah, as always, it's too bad about the bullshit word-salad lyrics, but even then, the song settles into something neat on the "you haven't seen my good side yet" part.  Then "Lit Up" has a lively bass and drum core that sounds like a high-energy but tuneless indie-rock song very much in line with the band's more famous peers, capable of boring the shit out of me with just as much skill (look, I just don't like the particular type of music that I'm dismissively calling "indie rock."  Maybe that'll merit a more detailed post sometime).

When listening straight through, which again is my usual style, I typically bounce off the record at the same place every time.  After not loving "Lit Up," that's followed by "Looking For Astronauts," which features a lifeless repetition of basically the same two phrases over and over, surrounded by a few other bullshit word-salad lyrics.  Guys - just because you mumble the same thing over and over five thousand times doesn't make it a catchy hook.  And from here I remember why this band annoys me so much sometimes.  Why this aggressive refusal to just write some pop hooks and perform some comprehensible words over them?  And if you're wondering why I find it so bothersome that not every song by every band is personally appealing to me, I think the issue is that the National at their worst feel affected and pretentious to me, like they're deliberately being as obnoxious as they can rather than just writing music that I have a mixed reaction to.

I think at this point in their life, two things that the National do well are twitchy slightly off-kilter rockers and weepy ballads.  I've come around on "Friend Of Mine," which does in fact join "Abel" and "Mr. November" (and "Murder Me Rachael," etc.) in the pile of National songs that, well, rock.  The clever guitar parts make these tunes all full of nervous energy.  It's appealing.  Meanwhile, when they're willing to embrace a melody and maybe pretty it up with strings and backup vocals, you get some solid songs too.  "Val Jester" is probably the best of that style here, and a few others like "Baby We'll Be Fine" have their moments.

What the National do worst is songs where they don't rely on interesting music to help me get past the bullshit word-salad lyrics.  I'm maybe slowly getting better at just accepting that their lyrical style is to heavily blur the line between "poetic surrealism" and "winging it."  It is what it is.  Most of the time.  Most of the time I get annoyed is when a song is repetitious and musically inert like "City Middle" so there's nothing to distract me from trying to figure out the lyrics.  Who the fuck uses the phrase "city middle," and how is that different fr... NO, DON'T CARE.  Is "Karen" still the addressee by the time the song gets to "I get weird memories of you pissing in the sink I think?"  How can a woman ev... FORGET IT, DON'T CARE.  Is this the same "Karen" as the Karen from her eponymous song earlier on the record, and if so, what's the connect... NO, I DO NOT NEED TO BE DEVOTING BRAIN POWER TO THIS, DON'T CARE DON'T CARE.**

And so "Alligator" ends up as a mix of the things I've appreciated most and least about this band so far.  It kind of averages out to a decent effort.

Other randomness:

- Bryce is a big asset to the rockier songs on this record.  But what the hell is he doing on "The Geese Of Beverly Road?"  You've got the bird-like oboes on the intro and outro, you've got this nice strummed guitar part and this nice plaintive vocal melody as the character tries his damndest to convince a presumably skeptical listener that the world is their oyster and that "we'll get away with it" - this is one of the few National lyrics I actually quite like - and then on top of it you've got this booming drum part that doesn't fit the song at all.

- My brother, who unintentionally inspired this whole stupid project, sent me a live video of a 2010 festival performance of "Mr. November."  I don't have strong opinions about it, but it's interesting to see this arch indie-snob stuff recast as crowd-pleasing anthems, complete with light show, singer moving through the rapturous crowd, and so on.  Matt even sings more like a pro wrestler (and seems to have trouble staying in key), projecting his gravely vocals differently.  I guess a better analogy would be to say that live, that he's giving a stage actor's performance, instead of the movie actor's performance we get on the studio record.  When I'm exploring a discography I always wish there were more professionally-made live recordings, since this is a big part of how one gets to know an artist.  

- I'm not going to bother with the various B-sides available on the "Abel" and "Lit Up" singles.  If the band cared that much whether or not I heard a song, they'd put it on a record or a proper EP.

- Favorite track:  "Abel"

- Runner up:  "Val Jester"

- Least favorite track:  "Looking For Astronauts"

- Album rating:  3/5 (the definition of decent)

Definitive running list of records by the National that I have listened to in order of what I have decided is unambiguously their quality

1)  Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers

2)  Alligator

3)  The National

4)  Cherry Tree

Thoughts on Boxer whenever I get around to it!

*That quip isn't original; it's adapted from a corner of the early internet obscure enough that it's not worth getting into where I got it.

**I said I was "maybe getting better" at letting that stuff slide, not that I was there yet.