I'VE BEEN LISTENING TO THIS ALBUM ALL DAY AND IT JUST COMPLETELY BREAKS MY HEART

“High Violet” is the National’s latest album for their time. It’s the world according to a man who isn’t getting any younger, mostly wants to be a good father and husband and employee and friend — and might be happy, but for all that resistance he thinks he keeps tamped in his own head. He used to be the Great White Hope, the hero of his own box-size living room. Now he’s got a kid on his shoulder, lives on coffee and cut flowers while thinking about clearing out of the Silver City and going back to Ohio where life is simpler — until you get there and remember why you left.

--Nichloas Dawidoff, The National Agenda