Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers
by The National

From AnthraxHamRadio 01/24/2011 17:50 | #17783 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

For some it's Boxer. Others Alligator. And a few High Violet. For me, it's so Sad Songs.

Strange that as the first album I bought by a band that have become my favourite I have never fully connected with this album. When I looked at the band's back catalogue after the release of Trouble Will Find Me I came up with a theory that their album's come in pairs but Sad Songs just doesn't seem to fit in. For me the downbeat acoustics of Cherry Tree sits better as the follow up to their country tinged debut. My feeling of Sad Songs is that it was the band trying to realise a vision of a denser more sophisticated sound than their eponymous album that was just beyond them at that point in their development. Cherry Tree then feels like a return to basics and Alligator/Boxer a much more natural progression to High Violet/TWFM where they achieved that complex sound they were after. All of this is not to say that Sad Songs gives me nothing, It's still full of Matt's poetry which can make me laugh and cry whilst still not really knowing what he's talking about. The songs all work fine on their own but seem somehow disparate without that feeling of togetherness that great albums have. I'm trying to condense a lot of thoughts into a nutshell here and really struggling, I could write a book on The National's albums (I'm not saying it would be a good book but it would be a book.) I'm listening to Sad Songs as I write this and I'm just noticing how conventional Bryan's drumming sounds in comparison to what has come since. In short I love this album because without it some of the best albums ever made wouldn't have been made but if they hadn't followed it up with Alligator I guess it would be sat unloved and brooding in the dark recesses of my ipod which I suspect it would perversely enjoy.

Good album. Some really beautiful pieces here and there, definitely better than their debut album. Two songs that stand out for me were "Lucky you" and "90 mile water wall".

From RoundTheBend TOP 100 COMMENTER 07/13/2013 08:39 | #81329 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

Slipping Husband was awesome. This album is overall better than any other album of theirs I have listened to. Everyone is crazy about Boxer, and Boxer turned me away from these guys, and this album pulls me in... I guess it goes to show you it isn't an artists supposed magnum opus that one should listen to in order to know that band.

From HoldenM TOP 100 COMMENTER 10/06/2014 07:01 | #123490 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

As much as I love The National (they have a strong claim as my favorite band,) this is probably their weakest album, in my opinion. It's still quite good, and the band is still fleshing themselves out, but the outcome is less than their capabilities.