Boxer

by

The National

Edit

The first thing you'll notice about this album is how slow it is. Only two songs, "Mistaken for Strangers" and "Apartment Story", rock in any kind of recognizable way. Others like "Racing Like a Pro" and "Ada" barely resemble rock music at all. The band's previous album, Alligator, was full of big rock songs and topped many critics and bloggers best of 2005 lists. This has largely been abandoned on the follow-up Boxer, a series of dark, mellow tracks, populated with low baritone vocals, horns, strings, pianos, etc.

If you've followed the band's previous work, you may be slightly disappointed by the lack of screaming or upbeat rock songs. There's nothing like "Slipping Husband", "Available", "Abel" or "Mr. November" to be found on here. What's left is a great mellow record that sounds like a continuation of the band's Cherry Tree EP from 2004. Highlights include "Brainy", "Slow Show", "Ada" and "Gospel". Give this record a little bit of time to grow on you. It was just released today, but I've been listening to a leaked copy for about two months (I bought an official copy today).

This band was originally labeled as alt-country, but has now become darker and more artsy than YHF-era Wilco. Each album has been an interesting change of pace and atmosphere. Check out their previous albums The National (2001), Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers (2003), Cherry Tree Ep (2004) and Alligator (2005). I highly recommend them all, including this one. This is one of the best American bands making music today.

Boxer is one of those albums that's perfect for background music, and every so often you'll hum some of the vocal melodies, but the album overall is honestly not NEARLY as memorable as the 80-plus reviews here will have you believe.

The lead singer rarely (if ever) branches beyond that "calmly pleasant" vocal style and presents listeners with vocal melodies that are average at best. I believe the singer was influenced by Bruce Springsteen's early work, or perhaps Bob Dylan's early work for that matter but lacks the charisma to stand out. I hear a slightly similar sound in his voice to these two legendary artists. He's not bad of course, and the band isn't awful either. Far from it.

Still, after several listens, "Gospel" is the only song that really connects with me. The rest is just pleasant filler. You'll probably like it more than I do.