16. The National - Sleep Well, Beast
Matt Berninger's intriguing imagery and sly wit wins out against flat, contemporary over-production*. Storytelling saves the day.
(*A similar issue sank this year's Elbow album for me: a band I've loved since the start, striving too hard to cut out the guitars and garner radio play by smothering their sound in a Coldplay-like sheen. Or maybe I'm just getting old.**)
(**Indexes and parentheses are a cool way of cheating my self-imposed 17 word limit, aren't they?)
I get a little punchy with the vodka
Just like my great uncle Valentine Jester did
But he had to deal with those people like you
Who made no goddamn common sense
I’d rather walk all the way home right now
Than to spend one more second in this place
I’m exactly like you Valentine,
Just come outside and leave with me
.
Next: 30 is the new mid-life crisis.
I only discovered The National this year. Top band. Top album. Sometimes wonder how I miss these things for so long....
ReplyDeleteI don't know a lot about The National, but have grown to quite like 'Day I Die'.
ReplyDeleteGood counting Rol and Swede. I am very impressed with both of you and your arithmetical dexterity.
ReplyDeleteYeah, but The Swede (and you) appear to be able to do it effortlessly without cheating footnotes*!
Delete(*Whereas I can't help myself.)
Next time we want it in Haiku too.
ReplyDeleteThere was an old man called Rol,
DeleteWho tried to be terribly droll
He said, "I can't do
A review in haiku.
I'm a poetic neanderthal.'
This has won top prize in the 'Best Post and Comments' category of the 2017 Blogging Awards.
ReplyDeleteJC