THE NATIONAL - Trouble Will Find Me (2013), listen #2

There are times I kind of regret the decision to make my National reactions "immediate reactions" to each listen.  On the plus side you get unfiltered thoughts, which I guess prevents overthinking and overwriting everything.  On the minus side, well, there's way too often that I don't have anything intelligent to say.  My second listen to Trouble Will Find Me is one of those times.  I didn't get all that much out of the record this time, and it hasn't clicked yet as a whole quite the way I hoped it would.  To be clear, this does not mean that I don't still like the record.  My impressions remain positive.  This post is in fact going to end with a list of things I liked.  I simply can't say that much clicked on a deep level here.  Maybe I was distracted.  Maybe the hooks just aren't tight enough for the record to live up to its early promise.  Or maybe it just needs more listening.

Is two listens to a record enough to make any meaningful judgments?  Well, ideally, no.  Obviously nobody is going to absorb everything after hearing it once or twice.  Ideally I'd have weeks of dedicated time to soak up every piece of music that I'm exploring, listen to it in different settings and see how I respond.  This idea doesn't really work in a world full of music.  Especially if I'm going to seriously listen and absorb what I'm hearing - which I absolutely cannot do as "background music" the way some apparently can - I can't give multiple spins to everything.  Ain't nobody got time for that.  My process is to try to listen to at least five "new" - as in, listens one through three - records each week.  (After three listens, a record is established, so future listens don't count.)  One will notice that there are way more than five (or two, realy, assuming each thing earns an average of two and a half listens) records released each and every week during the year.  You have to triage, as they say in my day job.  I have to listen to one song in the background just to see if it sounds worth giving the record my time at all.  Records that don't make an impression right away, or make a negative one, I'm never listening to again, because again, ain't nobody got time for that.  After two listens something needs to prove itself as in some way special if it's going to qualify for a third.  After three, I make the call about whether something deserves to go into the long-term rotation as a candidate for the year-end list.

Since I'm blogging about all National records, I already know I'm going to be spending more time with Trouble.  But let's say I wasn't.  Would this earn a third listen?  Definitely.  A few reasons why.  One is that my impression is still decidedly positive.  TWFM screams out that it's a record that's worth more time.  Second is b(r)and loyalty.  An artist that's established themself with me has a much longer leash, and a certain amount of trust.  I know that I like the National's music, and will therefore give a new National record a healthy chance.  I know that pretty much every National record so far has had a few slow-growers like "The Geese Of Beverly Road" or "Start A War" and my assumption is that this record will be no different.  I think I'm at the point where even absent this project, something by the National would be nearly guaranteed to get the full three listens.  (Because I'm blogging, low threshold to go more like 4-6 spins, or whatever it takes to get me feeling comfortable enough to write a post like my final comments on High Violet.*)

What specific elements stand out and make me think that this record has staying power?  A partial list:

- The clever twist on a biblical allusion (at least that's how I'm interpreting it) that makes up the central conceit of "I Should Live In Salt"

- Mentioned it already in the last post, but the multi-layered vocals that form the ending breakdown of "Don't Swallow The Cap"

- The use of arpeggios on a few songs, especially 'Fireproof"

- The longing way that the vocal melody goes up a half step higher than it seems like it should on the 'less' rhyming words on "Graceless."  Also the similarly longing tone of the high parts of "Humiliation"

- Everything about the keyboard part of "Pink Rabbits"

- The way "This Is The Last Time" both vocally and instrumentally is delivered like a Death Cab For Cutie song, and is catchy in the same way

- The way "This Is The Last Time" incoporates the word "vacant" early so it can then bust out a fist-pumping moment with the "I won't be vacant anymore" part

- The way "This Is The Last Time," right when one thinks they have the song figured out, drops into another different section (the "Jenny I am in trouble" bit) which I still don't really get, but really want to listen to the song a few more times to dissect.

So, yeah, I'm thinking it's pretty obvious what my favorite track is at the moment.

Favorite track:  "This Is The Last Time"

Runner up:  "Pink Rabbits"

Least favorite track:  "Heavenfaced"

Working rating:  3.5/5

Thoughts on listen #3 whenever I get around to it!

*which, incidentally, is one of my favorite things I've ever written for this blog.