I recently stumbled upon Alligator, the most recent album by The National, which I have enjoyed immensely. The National are difficult group to pin down. They're from Cincinnati by way of New York. Their sound has elements of everything from country-rock to Brit-pop. The focal point of the band is vocalist Matt Berninger who ably uses his baritone to croon his sad songs for dirty lovers (actually the title of their previous album). A pair of brothers (Scott & Bryan Devendorf, Aaron & Bryce Dessner) provide a diverse, expansive musical accompaniment.
At first, I fell for the atmospheric, elegaic ballads which seem to be the band's stock-in-trade. I consider "Baby We'll Be Fine" and "The Geese Of Beverly Road" among my favorites, but over time some of them tend to blur together. What makes the album a long-term keeper are the punchy rockers that punctuate the slower, moody numbers. "All The Wine" is probably the most immediately arresting number. "Abel", "Lit Up", and the album closer "Mr. November" are all nearly as great.
I think if they had written a couple more high-quality rockers, and dropped a couple of the weaker ballads, this could have been a near perfect album. As it stands, it's still well worth enjoying. 8 out of 10.
After listening to their previous albums, it appears they had been concentrating on slow and mid-tempo numbers in the past as well. But whenever they did more uptempo material they really shined (I think "Available" from the largely languid Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers is one of their best songs). Here's to hoping they realize that, in spite of their skill with slow songs, they are at their most transcendent when they rock out.