A few centuries ago, I rambled a tad about The National’s Boxer. I might add to my original tldr that I am still drawn to Boxer quite often and these days I consider it a five-star album because its weary, apathetic melancholy and relaxing light of hope is unbelievably magical and hypnotic. So, it was only a matter of time I’d dwell into the band’s other works and being the funky logical person I am, I decided to grab onto their other more well-known work: the album before Boxer, Alligator.

To those who are excitedly looking for me to ramble about Alligator a lot now, I shall disappoint you: I shan’t. I shall instead focus my observations on one single song, hence the “song ramble” category. However, I can nutshell you the album like this: It’s like Boxer but more uplifting and relaxed, less worn and hazy, not as magical or great but still good, will probably grow on me a lot more with time like Boxer did, recommended.

The song I want to ramble about is the opener “Secret Meeting”. Based on my highly extensive take of two albums, The National seems to be a band who knows how to make amazing openers that instantly hook the listener and offer something unbelievably awesome.

The opener opens with a sudden cymbal crash and then instantly swoops into action, quite contrary to the usual style of openers lulling the listener into the album’s realm. The jingly-jangly crystal clear frolic of the guitar and piano and an erratic, subtly funky thumping beat make way to Matt Berninger’s seductive, charmant gentleman voice. Soon the chorus erupts with its brilliant melodic guitar wall. Later on the song adds up on all of its parts: the chorus gains extra power from random whoops and shouts in the background which might sound a bit awkward on paper but works amazingly in the song. And then the chorus repeats ad infinitum, keeping its position in the musical heaven it flew in as it grew. For those whose first touch to the band was Boxer, Secret Meeting comes off as a really surprising move. It’s relaxed and uplifting, a shining army of frolicking melodies.

And because I’m such an awesome guy, I’ll let you listen to it via an mp3 I’m going to share! Enjoy!

The National – Secret Meeting

Tags: The National

This entry was posted on Friday, November 21st, 2008 at 9:39 pm and is filed under Song Ramble. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.