With all the restlessness that surrounds the band, originally from Ohio, they have managed to create a huge hype since their first album from 2001. Even her fifth work "High Violet" justifies every euphoria: The National surpasses even once more. The exuberant gestus from the predecessor album "Boxer" (2007) also determines these eleven compositions, which have a more harmonious effect. The subtly seething "Terrible Love" sets the aesthetic fixed point of a record right from the beginning, which lives from the interweaving of intelligently directed rhythms with strings, wind instruments, piano and the bandtypical, very immediate guitar sound. The arrangements and melodic lines keep the suspense up, the effect of the strong compositions is mostly epic ("England"), hymnic ("Bloodbuzz Ohio") or deliberately from, as in "I'm Afraid Of Everyone". Ultimately, it is once again Matt Berninger's unmistakable, deep baritone, which makes "High Violet" a great TheNational work.
