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It has been a bit of an odd year for music. 2005 bristled with great records and the cycle of things has meant all the follow-ups are coming at the same time - bringing another wave of fine albums, but ones that are struggling to match the punch of their predecessors. Of these bands, the National had the hardest task of all and yet have pulled it off with plenty to spare.
Back around the time of Cherry Tree they threatened to melt into the morass of maudlin Americana. Instead they took their cue from that record's stand out - All the Wine - and, in Alligator, crafted an album of slow burning magnificence, an irresistable tumble of addictive offbeat melodies and "I wish I'd written that" soundbitten attitude. Boxer eases through the job of following up simply by picking up seamlessly where Alligator left off.
The band have mastered the art of building apparently simple songs from a range of compelling fragments. Volleys of staccatto drumming pin down sometimes languid, sometimes urgent strings, piano, guitar and horns - a compelling whole completed by Matt Berninger's drop dead cool vocals. It's the epitome of rock 'n roll without ever sounding remotely like rock 'n roll - the sound of sleepily cruising the open road in a convertible with a quart of whiskey at your hip. Berninger hasn't lost his touch with phrase either. A sense of lazy decadence -"half asleep in a fake empire" - hangs over songs that are either broadly satirical, intensely personal or both. The recorded National song may be a very different beast from its live counterpart. But what it lacks in muscle, it makes up many times over in beauty and intrigue. Nobody who's ever enjoyed music with a hard drink or a rough cigarette can afford to pass this record by.
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