High Violet (Expanded Version) by THE NATIONAL - !CD - Boomkat .

*Special edition including a special Bonus Disc with 7 additional tracks* In a music industry that's becoming increasingly fixated on overnight, flavour-of-the-month success stories and general disposability, it can simply be regarded as a big positive that The Subject are a circle whose appeal continues to rise after about ten days of recording together.

espite not being the fresh-faced pups normally needed to have such a stir, High Violet is one of 2010's most talked around and anticipated albums, following on from the massively acclaimed Alligator (2005) and Boxer (2007).The lead-up single 'Bloodbuzz Ohio' previewed the impressive sense of scale this band aim for, and subtly, throughout High Violet they invest their already very expressive core sound with orchestration (some of which is ordered by Nico Muhly) and big-name guest spots from the likes of Sufjan Stevens, Bon Iver's Justin Vernon and Richie Reed Parry of Arcade Fire fame.None of this detracts or distracts from the persistence and general magnificence of the album, which seems to do up highlight after highlight: if opener 'Terrible Love' sets the bar awfully high as a first track, 'Sorrow' and the stunning 'Anyone's Ghost' see the standard rising ever higher - seldom has an album's opening fifteen minutes so persistently threatened to raise the hairs on the support of your neck.In a sense - and I exhort you not to be put off by such statements - The Interior are the real matter that Coldplay would probably most dear to be.Here is a band unafraid of making big, emotive, ambitious music that treats its audience to grand choruses and guitars that stay exactly the proper position of stadium-rock, all the while preserving a just-enigmatic-enough indie persona so as not to wander into outright schmaltz.If all that sounds a tad calculated, well it's probably not an all fair portrait of The National, but somehow they do manage to pulling off the magic of looking like a set for all people at all times in a way that steers clear of wince-inducing cliche or populist hysterics.Whilst coming across as eminently sound and credible, you could imagine festival circuit live renderings of 'Conversation 16' and 'England' making U2 sound like Thee Oh Sees.There's considerable depth behind all this cosmetic bombast, however, and High Violet quickly proves itself worthy of the not inconsiderable press aid that has already been afforded it.This is one of the big, 'event' albums of the 2010, and actually, most likely it'll also try to be one of the year's finest.